


Link to All

by SkywardKey



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Focuses on Sora but we'll see the others too, Gen, KH3 Speculation, More tags as story updates, Self-Discovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 18:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11491800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkywardKey/pseuds/SkywardKey
Summary: Between searching for the missing Guardians of Light, finding the Key to Return Hearts, and learning to master the Power of Waking, the journey that lies ahead for Sora is definitely a long and perilous one.Sora must not only follow his heart, but also remember that the closer he is to the light, the greater his shadow becomes, all while the bonds in his heart begin to affect his power.A prediction of KH3.





	1. Black and White

**Author's Note:**

> As the summary said, I wanted to try to write a prediction for KH3 while trying to keep it as canon accurate as possible. 
> 
> There are a lot of ideas I've seen swirling around that I liked, but there were either too little fanfics about them or too many abandoned ones. 
> 
> I figured I may as well contribute to the KH GenFic pool.

* * *

Black and White.

Light and Dark.

Shades of Grey and Light and Shadows all around.

A simple yet apt description of the view from inside the pristine, yet colorful, Gummi Ship overlooking the vast emptiness of the Lanes Between. Inside of this ship sat our three heroes - Donald polishing his staff, Goofy taking a much needed nap, and Sora navigating the Ship.

Moments of silence passed before our hero pouted his lips and groaned, which evolved into a yawn as he put the ship on Auto-Pilot.

“Aw, joining Goofy in Dreamland Sora?” Donald said, pointing to the sleeping dog on his right.

A devious grin on his face, Sora looked back at Donald and replied, “Y’know, that’s not a bad idea Donald. Those Dream Eaters knew how to use Curaga pretty well, after all,” as he stood up from his seat and stretched his arms above his head, faking a casual yawn to further irritate his duck friend.

Donald growled, eyebrows furrowed, as he aimed his staff at Sora.

“THUNDER!” screamed the duck, jumping in his seat from the sheer force of casting the spell.

The low level spell sped towards the standing teen, whose reflexes, honed by years of combat, allowed him to duck just in time. The spell bounced off of the window and jolted their sleeping companion awake, who let out his telltale yell.

“Yeouch! What was that?” Goofy questioned, as he looked from Donald to Sora and back, somehow still seated despite the ordeal.

In silence and unison, hand and wing shot up to point at the other in blame.

“Well _Sora_ started it when he made a --”

“Waitwaitwait, _Donald_ can’t take a --”

“-- joke about healing.” The two finished together.

“A-hyuck, is that all this is?” Goofy laughed and closed his eyes, attempting to return to his nap. “Y’all sure have fun when I’m a’sleepin’. Reminds me of me an’...” Goofy trailed off, sleep overtaking him quicker than epected. “Aw shucks never mind. Wake me when we’re there.”

Sora and Donald looked at each other, made faces, and returned to their original plans. Donald continued polishing his staff, as Sora made his way to his cabin. Before he reached the opening to the hallway, he smiled at Donald and said, “Couldn’t resist making that joke - you caught me being my lazy self after all. Had to get you back for that one!” and continued to walk towards his cabin, leaving the duck to shout “I knew it ya lazy palooka!” in his direction.

With the journey only halfway finished, Sora was confident that he could wake up before needing to land, and even more confident that Donald would take over (and tease him about it) if he did not. He plopped unceremoniously onto his cot and fell into unconsciousness almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

* * *

 Sora was floating in water, but was not wet. He allowed himself to be taken by the current, cool and refreshing, until he felt himself hitting a semi-solid surface - sand. Nowhere else to go but up, Sora got up from the water to find himself in Destiny Islands. It was not the first time he dreamt of home, and he was sure it wouldn’t be his last either.

He looked around and a reflection of light in the sand caught his eye. ‘That’s definitely weird - seashells don’t usually do that.’ He thought.

Sora made his way to the beach to see a gunmetal grey keyblade laying there. With E-shaped teeth and an off-white and burgundy handle, it was definitely not a keyblade Sora had ever seen before. He picked it up with curiosity and it disappeared.

Sora tried calling it, and with some difficulty it eventually relinquished it’s fight and came to him. He knew it meant that it’s wielder was still out there somewhere.

“I’ll find you, whoever you are, wherever you are.”

Sora looked around and the Secret Place caught his eye - there was a towering white door blocking the entrance. Knowing it was a dream, anf knowing the importance of dreams, Sora made his way to the door.

Upon closer inspection, Sora realized it was the Door to the Dark Realm summoned by Xehanort’s Heartless years ago at the beginning of his adventures.

“What are you doin’ here?”

Sora cocked his head and pondered before he opened the door and stepped forward.

He began to fall headfirst towards the Stained Glass that represented his heart, though instead of the usual faces he was accustomed to seeing, there were others’ he recognized, and some he didn’t, added to this instance of his Dive. Directly opposite of the image of Sora was one of Roxas, with bubbles by his face containing Lea’s face, and a hooded figure Sora could not make out nor recognize. In between the two were two more bubbles, containing what seemed to be Roxas’ face yet again for some reason, and a masked head.

Landing gently as always, Sora took a few steps forward and took in his surroundings.

“Hm… Something always happens when I’m in here...:”

His wondering was soon stopped as the same voice from his first journey spoke once again.

 

“ _You are the one who will open the door…”_

 

Light flashed to Sora’s left and a door appeared. He walked to it only for a Neoshadow to pop out of the ground ahead of him.

 

“ _But keep your focus! The dark is all around, waiting to strike…”_

 

At this, the Neoshadow jumped at Sora, who blocked the attack with a freshly summoned Kingdom Key. He struck the stronger shadow incarnation with all his might, knocking it back. It melded into the floor as Sora looked around for it.

The Neoshadow made its way behind Sora, stalking its prey. It shifted up from the floor, and readied a pounce when -

 

“ _Behind you!”_

 

Sora turned around and struck the offending Neoshadow just before it reached him, causing it to dissipate and free the trapped heart inside. Kingdom Key banished itself.

Sora continued on his way to the door as the voice continued.

 

“ _Darkness lingers at every corner, even in those you do not realize exist.”_

 

Opening the door, Sora made his way to a nearly identical station, only the masked face was no longer masked - revealing a face identical to Sora’s with jet black hair.

 

“ _And never forget - your strength comes from the bonds you make, but what will happen when those bonds break?”_

 

From the image of the black-haired Sora, a puddle of darkness appeared and a feral but somewhat humanoid creature slowly rose from the puddle. It was the darkness of Sora’s heart, ocassionally brought out by his clothes as a Drive form: Anti-form.

Sora summoned Kingdom Key once more. Anti-form, bouncing on three limbs and head jerking around, finally found Sora and lurched itself at him. Sora dodge-rolled Anti-form’s first attack, and swung a three-hit combo into Anti-form’s unshielded back. Sora took a few cautious steps back as Anti-form melted into the floor.

Sora kept his eyes peeled as Anti-form popped back up again, but was too slow as a few clawed attacks sent Sora flying backwards. He regained his composure on landing and rushed in, lading more powerful hits on Anti-form, stunning the feral representation of Sora’s Darkness.

Anti-form was in the middle of recovering when -

“Take this!” Sora yelled as he landed the final blow, knocking Anti-form out.

Anti-form’s body melted into the shadows of the stained glass once more, this time with no signs of resurgence.

 

“ _Remember: the closer you get to the Light, the greater_ _your Shadow becomes.”_

 

Sora nodded, having heard that one specific line before, and looked behind him, expecting Darkside to appear once again. Instead, the puddle of darkness returned over the image of the black haired Sora copy and grew in size. Sora ran for the edge but the dark pool was unrelenting, reaching the edge before Sora could make it. He was sinking and no matter what he did, he only fell faster and faster. He was drowning, drowning, drowning in the Darkness with nowhere to run. Sora’s eyes closed as exhaustion hit him unexpectedly, falling into the blackness physically and mentally.

 

“ _Be cautious but not afraid, for you hold the mightiest weapon of all.”_

* * *

 

“..ra!”

“..up Sora! A-hyuck.”

“WAKE UP SORA!”

“OUCH!” Sora cried, as Donald’s staff unceremoniously hit his cheek.

“About time you lazy bum. I had to land the Gummi Ship myself since you two were sleeping. Wak wak wak.” Donald let out a chuckle, as Sora rubbed his sore cheek.

“Maybe next time don’t hit the person you’re -- Wait, we’re here?” Sora sprang up from the cot and ran towards the cockpit, leaving Donald and Goofy no choice but to follow their excited companion.

Outside of the Gummi Ship window were plains and mountains, with ornate pillared buildings made of stone and marble indicating the nearest city. Sora took in his surroundings and let out a bright, infectious smile, grabbing his now smiling companions as he stated, “Olympus Coliseum, here we are!”

* * *

 


	2. Heroes and Heartwits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so our endeavor into Olympus begins

* * *

 Pillars of stone and marble gave off an air of grandeur as the home for Champions, Rivals, and Heroes in-training towered above a state of near-completed repairs. The Coliseum stood taller and prouder than ever before upon its hill overlooking the nearby town, and our heroes gazed with eyes and mouths wide-open as they walked towards the massive gates.

“Whoa! Herc and Phil did a really great job!” said Sora, pushing open the doors that led to the newly rebuilt entrance plaza.

“I’ll say.” said Donald, waddling around slowly to gaze on the reconstructed area.

The trio noticed a small satyr and muscular young man in the distance, blocking the entrance to the vestibule with a rope and a wooden plank with “Closed” carved into it. The two were lost in conversation until the man looked up from his conversation, and noticed Sora, Donald and Goofy making their way towards him and his companion.

“Sora! Donald! Goofy!” he greeted, eyes widening at seeing the junior heroes, “What brings you three here? The Games are postponed until the inside’s renovations are done.”

The satyr at his side turned around and caught sight of Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

“Hey it’s you three!” Phil pointed at them, “Ay-yi-yi just when I thought I was done fixin’ this messugener’s mess you all show up!” Phil rubbed his forehead before smiling, “Maybe you three can help us out?”

“Heya Hercules! We’re here because I need to gain my strength again, and you and Phil are the best teacher for that!” said Sora once the trio finally reached Phil and Hercules, “And sure Phil, Junior Heroes at your service!” At this Sora, Donald and Goofy all saluted at Phil.

“Take it easy, it’s not much. Y’see, we need ta go inta Thebes real quick and try ‘n’ find Meg for us.” Phil said, pointing to the nearby town at the base of the hill as Sora, Donald and Goofy relaxed their postures.

“She offered to get more pottery for Phil’s training exercises, but it’s been a few hours and we were getting worried. We were actually talking about who should go look for her, when you three came along.” said Hercules, pointing back towards the still roped off vestibule entrance, “Phil has to go over all the records of game entrants and send them notices of Games’ new dates, and I need to visit Hephaestus to get some new trophies made, so neither of us can really head to Thebes at the moment. When we’re all done though, I’ll make sure Phil helps train you.”

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked at one another and looked back at Phil and Hercules. Sora crossed his arms and grinned wildly at the two.

“Of course we can find Meg for ya!” he said, raising his arms behind his head and tilting it slightly.

“Gawrsh,” said Goofy, “I sure hope she’s okay.”

“Aw, I bet she’s fine, ya big palooka. Let’s go see the city!” Donald said.

“To the city!” exclaimed Sora

“To the city!” chorused Donald and Goofy.

* * *

 The chaos and ruckus of the city’s marketplace was new to the trio, having previously only been confined to the Coliseum and the Underworld. With the bodies passing on walkways and streets, the chariots racing down roads, and carts on walkways with sellers yelling about their wares, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were frozen, gazing on and taking in the activity of a town as lively and busy as Thebes.

There was no way that simply asking around for a woman named Meg would fly - the crowds of people walking through the city were a mere fraction of the populace. What were the chances the first random local they asked would not only know _who_ Meg was but also _where_ she was? Extremely low, was the unspoken consensus among the trio.

“So,” Sora began, turning to his companions, “Where should we start?”

“Well, uh, Herc did say that Meg went to look for some poverty - “

“Pottery!” Donald interrupted.

“Right, pottery.” Goofy corrected himself, “So uh, maybe we should find a shop or somethin’ that sells pots and vases?”

“Hm… that’s not a bad idea Goofy, but, we don’t know where anything is. We should probably ask around. Maybe get a map or a quick layout of the area.” Sora said, crossing his arms and looking around the road. “One of these guys has gotta have somethin’. Let’s split up and ask around, and meet up on the steps when we’re done.”

“I’ll ask the sellers over here,” Donald said, pointing to sellers on the far side of the street.

“Then I’ll take the ones on this side, a-hyuck!”

“So that leaves me with the wandering salespeople and the locals. Alright. See you both soon!”

Sora, Donald and Goofy nodded and separated from one another, to complete their assigned duties. Sora first went to a hunched over man with a hooked nose and dark cloak.

“Excuse me sir, do you know where I can - “

“Get a sundial?” interrupted the man, “Why, right here!” He quickly pulled the cloak open to reveal no less than 10 sundials of various colors and sizes.

“Erm, no thanks.” Sora replied, backing a few steps and taking a gulp. “Do you know where I can find a map, or a pottery seller?”

“No sale, no information.” The cloaked man pulled the cloak together and walked off, offering his sundials to other passers-by.

Sora closed his eyes and sighed, and walked towards a group of Thebans when a small black blur ran past his feet. He turned around to track the blur as he heard hurried footsteps getting closer behind him.

“Snowball come back here!” yelled the running man, pausing by Sora to catch his breath.

Sora turned to the panting man, donned in burnt brown clothes, and asked, “Do you need any help sir?”

The man looked at Sora, his face donning several burnt areas, and said, “Whaddaya think ya are, some kinda Hero? Pretty small start if you’re just helpin’ find pets.” He stood up tall and crossed his arms, looking at Sora with thinned eyes and pursed lips.

“If you’re not Hercules or trainin’ with Phil, then you’re not worth Thebes’ time.” He took a step away from Sora before turning back around, sizing him up.

Before he turned back to chase his pet, Sora spoke.

“I know Herc, and I’m a certified Junior Hero I’ll have you know!”

Sora pointed at himself and smiled brightly, looking intensely at the burnt man before him.

“How about we do a trade? I help you find Snowball, and you tell me if you know any pottery shops nearby. How’s that sound?”

“Phil must be really desperate, not much of a hero if you’re askin’ for somethin’ in return. But that darn cat keeps runnin’ out, and people an’ animals have been goin’ missin’ lately. Alright, you’ve got a deal, kid. Let’s get going.”

“Wait, back up. Did you say ‘going missing’?” Sora asked, concern slowly spreading on his face.

“Yeah,” the burnt man nodded, “Started a coupla weeks ago. I’ll tell ya on the way.”

Sora nodded, and called to Donald and Goofy to call off their search and follow him, filling them in on their current quest as they followed their escort towards the outskirts of town.

The roads leading out of the town were calmer, with the occasional traveler or local coming in or out to complete their errands.

* * *

The burnt man stepped ahead of the trio who followed promptly, making his way to the river at the edge of a wooded area a distance away from the town’s entrance. He walked purposefully, as if he was going to a spot he had been to many times before. He glanced quickly back at his temporary travel companions to check that they were keeping up the pace.

Sora took his quick glance towards them as an opening to ask about the disappearances. Donald’s and Goofy’s eyes widened at the mention of missing persons.

“People don’ really know why anyone’s goin’ missin’. Usually when somethin’s goin’ wrong, it’s Hades’ fault. As fer the animals, well, we’re all thinkin’ that Hades has gotta feed that dog o’his ain’t he?” the burnt man said, “Wish I could tell ya more but that’s all I know.”

Sora nodded and answered, “That’s alright. It’s more than enough help. So your cat - does it have a specific spot it hides in?”

The burnt man looked down and brought his hand to his chin, thinking.

“Snowball only likes a few places but y’know it’s a lot of work checkin’ them all by myself.” He began counting off his fingers with each location, “There’s some holes in roots by the river, there’s a few burrows around the hill, and there’s some shrubs at the bottom of Mount Olympus on the other side a these woods that lil’ Snowball hides in.”

Sora studied his surroundings. The narrow river ran between the woods and the hill off to the left of the group. The dirt road they stood on led off to the right of the woods, to even more roads which presumably led to other cities. Directly ahead lay the woods, behind which were the beginnings of the mountain range that held Olympus. The woods also snaked around behind the hill on the left.

“How about you check the roots, we’ll check the burrows on the hill, and we meet up and go to Mount Olympus’ base?” Sora proposed.

“Sure.” the burnt man agreed.

As the group started to walk towards the edge of the woods, a group of heartless appeared and blocked their path. Shadows and Soldiers moved jerkily, staring down the group as their next prey.

“Get behind us!” Sora yelled to their weaponless companion, who immediately followed orders and ran as far back from the Heartless as possible. Sora, Donald and Goofy took a triangle formation, back to back to back.

“Felt like too long since we fought anything.” Sora said to his companions, Keyblade materializing in his right hand.

“I’ll say.” replied Donald, readying his staff.

“All ready?” asked Goofy, shield in place.

“Let’s get to it then!” Sora exclaimed, and ran towards the crowd of Heartless.

Goofy followed suit as Donald hung back and began to sling spells in the Heartless’ direction.

“Take that!” Donald yelled as a fireball erupted from his staff, homing into one of the Shadows and hitting the target directly. The Shadow melded into the floor and ran away from Donald’s aim as he shouted out more spells at the other Heartless.

Goofy made use of his Tornado skill, taking on and weakening some of the Soldiers within his area of attack. As his spinning came to a stop, a Shadow wiggled its rear and lunged directly at Goofy, taking advantage of the opening left by this attack. Goofy barely defended with his shield in time but the force of the attack knocked him down, dust from the road flew up as he fell forcefully the ground.

The Shadow kept clawing at Goofy as he held his shield to protect himself, keeping Goofy from getting back up.

Suddenly, lightning struck the Heartless atop Goofy. The former Shadow disappeared in a cloud of Darkness and released the pinkish-red heart held captive, allowing it to float into the sky.

Goofy sprang back up and looked past a line of Soldiers at Donald, busy slinging spells and whacking the Shadows and Soldiers around him, then turned to Sora, Keyblade still aimed at Goofy’s direction.

Sora gave Goofy a quick smile before he returned his attention to the remaining Heartless, teaming up with Goofy to take down the Soldiers that surrounded them and blocked them from Donald.

With twin yells of effort, Sora and Goofy lunged at the Soldiers, previously weakened from the Tornado Spin, and took them out with ease. One swing of the Keyblade or two strikes of the Shield were all that were necessary to dispel the Soldiers.

The two looked at each other, panting from the exertion, and ran towards Donald to assist in defeating the remaining Heartless. Donald had resorted to simply swinging his staff and hoping for the best, seemingly out of Magic to cast his more powerful spells.

“Here!” Goofy yelled, throwing an Ether at Donald’s direction. He and Sora took over fighting the Heartless to give Donald a chance to drink the Magic-replenishing liquid.

“Thanks Goofy.” Donald said, feeling more energized and ready to take out this last crowd of Heartless, “THUNDER!”

Lighting shot down from above, striking the remaining four Heartless directly and landing the final blow for all four. The remaining Shadow and Soldiers evaporated into puffs of Darkness, a grey heart floating up from where the Shadow once was.

“That was some top-notch heroing!” said the burnt man, coming from his hiding spot behind a nearby sign, “The way you all worked together! I know someone who knows a guy who can get you three on a vase. Trust me once you’re on a vase Thebes is in your hands”

Donald’s eyes grew as a smile graced his beak. He rubbed his wings together quickly, and began chuckling in glee and excitement.

Sora softly bopped Donald over the head, bringing the duck out of his reverie, and chuckled at his antics.

“Aw, there’s no need for that sir.” said Goofy.

“Yeah, we’re here to help. To be honest we’re kinda lookin’ for someone too.” Sora said, smiling weakly at the older man, “But we promised we’d help you find Snowball, so let’s get to that.”

* * *

Roots clear and burrows empty, the quartet regrouped at the front of the woods and looked inwards in deep silence. The woods were moderately thick, empty enough to see the base of the mountain on the other side but still dense enough to cast deep shadows under the canopy.

“Well, I guess we gotta go in.” said Sora.

“Yep.” said Goofy.

“Are we just gonna stand here all day? My cat’s out there an’ could be three-headed dog food any minute, so…” the burnt man said.

Sora turned and looked to the man, placing a hand one his shoulder.

“We’ll go on ahead without you to find your cat. It seems too dangerous out there and you should be safe. Head back to Thebes and we’ll bring back Snowball for you alright?”

“Hm…. Fine. You’re right. Those things from earlier have never been this close to the outskirts before so I should hightail it outta here.” the burnt man began walking briskly in the direction of the town, and turned his head as he kept walking, “Bring Snowball back in one piece.”

Sora nodded and turned back to the woods.

“C’mon guys. If Hades is behind this maybe we can find Meg.”

Sora, Donald and Goofy walked into the woods, ready for any Heartless that may block their path.

* * *

Though light did filter through the trees, dancing around trunks and rocks as wind blew through the leaves, the shade within the woods was dark enough to seemingly filter everything with a haze of grey. The lack of a path to lead the way was highlighted by the multitude of roots, rocks, saplings and the occasional trunk acting as walking hazards around the trio. The uneven soil, packed in one step and loose in another, proved another hazard when Sora slipped and accidentally brought Goofy down with him as he grasped for a steady surface.

“Sorry Goofy.” Sora said, as he rose carefully to stand and offered a hand to the still downed Goofy.

“Oh Sora, it’s alright.” Goofy replied and took Sora’s hand, allowing the teen to help him recover.

“Um. Guys…” Donald said, “Look over there…”

Donald pointed to the left of the group, to a part of the woods hidden by the hill they saw earlier. Or at least, he pointed to what was left of the area. Stumps stood where once proud trees did and small saplings grew from some of the stumps. The ground was more ash than soil, the rocks were blackened from an obvious fire.

The three observed the area momentarily, looking from one another with a silent nod, not even needing to speak to understand what caused this desolate area.

Then, before the three had a chance to get back on track, a small horde of Red Nocturnes accompanied by a fleet of Shadows appeared in puffs of Darkness around the charred stumps.

Weapons materializing, the three quickly took battle stances and rushed the Heartless as quickly s possible.

Sora and Donald took care of the Nocturnes while Goofy took care of the Shadows. The magician and wielder teamed up, using nothing but Blizzard spells to keep the advantage against the fiery Red Nocturnes. Pink and grey hearts floated up at random intervals as each spell hit its target, each Nocturne bursting into a cloud of Darkness. Having taken care of a majority of the Nocturnes, Sora turned his attention to Goofy, leaving the remaining two to Donald.

Goofy had no such advantage over the Shadow aside from their being the weakest form of Heartless, so he stuck with the simple yet effective strategy of walloping the Heartless with his shield. Goofy expertly threw his shield at a few Heartless further away, dismissing them with the multiple hits as his shield returned to him.

He almost began a charge when Sora slashed at the Shadow in front of him, defeating the last of the Shadows from the group. He glanced at Donald to see the duck casting one last Blizzard at the last Nocturnes, and turned back to Sora.

“Gawrsh, Sora, we better hurry to that cat.” he said.

Sora nodded and the trio continued their way towards Mount Olympus’ base, unaware at the Dark Portal opening in the ashen clearing they just left behind.

“Here kitty kitty kitty!”

Sora’s voice echoed throughout the mountain pass that began the base of the mountain range. Donald’s and Goofy’s voices added to the noise, creating an ongoing din. The grass slowly transitioned into rock the closer the trio got to the pass that led to Olympus proper. Bushes and shrubbery were scattered around, any of which could be housing the runaway cat.

The three split up around the base, searching inside of the clusters of bushes and shrubbery, unfortunately to no avail.

Brush after shrub after hedge, calling and calling and calling, searching and searching and searching, neither Sora, nor Donald, nor Goofy could find neither hair nor tail of the missing cat.

Sighing heavily, Sora regrouped with Donald and Goofy at the entrance to the mountain pass.

“D’you think… maybe Snowball went into the pass to the Mountain?” Sora asked his companions.

“Well, y’know, probably - there’s another country out there that sees cats equal to gods like me and Zeusy, so that little furball would probably be allowed on Mount Olympus. Not like he’d have any fun there, no he won’t.”

The voice was sarcastic and unexpected, causing the trio to turn around. Before them was the blue-skinned, fire-haired Lord of the Underworld himself, holding onto Snowball and petting the feline to soothe it.

“Man I see why they love these things over there - I mean don’t get me wrong my little Cerberus is wonderful for home invasions and runaways - but this little guy just really knows how to not care about _anything_.” Hades said, and placed the cat at his feet.

“Now run along furball, the kid’s fallen for your bait and I got him right where I want him.”

At this, Hades roughly kicked the cat with the side of his foot, causing Snowball to run back towards town. Weapons materializing, Sora, Donald and Goofy braced themselves for the possibility of a battle with the god.

“What do you want Hades?” asked Sora, knees bent and stance low to the ground.

“Whoa whoa whoa, take it easy! And they say I’ve got the anger problems. Sheesh” Hades teleported in a puff of smoke behind Sora and casually slung an arm around Sora’s shoulders.

“I just want _you_ to do what you do best, o delivery boy, and tell that Jerkules that I’ve got his little Meggie Pie and she’s not goin’ _anywhere_ until the shining hero himself makes a deal with me. Capiche?”

Sora turned his head towards Hades’ face, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed, as Hades teleported once again in front of the trio, facing away from them in a carefree manner.

“What about the others?” Sora asked, still ready to defend if necessary.

“Yeah, where are the missing people Hades?” Donald yelled.

Hades turned around and crossed his arms, feigning a pensive look on his face. As quickly as he put up the facade, it broke, face twisting into a giant smirk with his eyebrows rising.

“Let’s just say, you don’t get a coupla hundred pawns without pulling off a few deals in your favor, eh?”

Sora ran towards Hades, keyblade ready to strike. He jumped and prepared an overhead swing...

 

...just as Hades disappeared into a shroud of Darkness, landing in the God’s former spot, missing him entirely.

Sora stood up from the missed attack and faced the others. The three shared a somber look and began their trek back to the Coliseum.

* * *

 


	3. My Friendships, My Power, and Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One Olympus Battle, coming up!
> 
> Doing my best to keep updating as regularly as possible - new chapters will come up once the chapter after it has been completed.

* * *

 Hercules had just walked into the Coliseum entrance, brand new bronze, silver, and gold trophies and medals in his arms, when he felt three much shorter forces run past him, panting and trying to reach the doors to the vestibule to catch Phil, who was still writing notices to be delivered to competitors..

“Sora, Donald, Goofy, are you alright?” Hercules asked behind them, causing them to pause in their tracks halfway to Phil and turn around, still breathing heavily from their long run.

“Hercules!” shouted Sora, “You’re here too!”

Sora took a few deep breaths before continuing.

“Perfect timing. Let’s get to Phil so we can tell you both the news at the same time - it’s urgent!”

With that, he and his companions made a beeline to Phil, and Hercules picked up his pace, reaching Phil at the same time as the trio. He carefully began to set down the items he brought, which helped to catch Phil’s attention.

“Alright, alright, team meetin’ then?” Phil asked, seeing everyone suddenly crowd around him. He looked to Hercules’ confused face, and then to Sora’s, Donald’s and Goofy’s worried faces and immediately lost his sarcastic, yet jovial, tone.

“What’s goin’ on?” He asked.

“Where’s Meg? You didn’t find her?” Hercules asked, puzzled face turning into worry.

Sora scratched his head, thinking of the best way to put the news.

“Well, yes and no. We didn’t actually find her, but we know where she is.” He settled on, continuing with, “Hades has her. And not just her! The missing townsfolk too!”

Hercules and Phil looked at Sora, eyes wide in worry, before looking to one another and nodding.

“There’s no helping it,” said Hercules, “we’ve gotta go save her.”

With that, Hercules regained his composure and began to make his way towards the Coliseum entrance before Sora called out to him. Hercules turned to face him in mid-step.

“Let us help you.” said Sora, “It’s the least we can do for your help.”

“Y’know, Sora’s right. We’ve got the Coliseum to thank fer helpin’ us get stronger.” added Goofy, nodding in agreement with Sora’s offer.

“Thanks. It’s good to know I’ll have you three as backup.” Hercules said, “Phil, keep an eye on the Coliseum, eh?”

Hercules smiled at Phil who shook his head in amusement.

“What else am I gonna do here, I ain’t the type a guy who asks fer trouble, I jus’ train ‘em.” Phil looked over the off-world group making their way towards Hercules.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy made their way out of the Coliseum with Hercules, without any need to discuss their destination - the Underworld.

* * *

 

“So, Herc,” Sora began, “how’re we gonna get to the Underworld this time? Because last time we were here it just kinda opened at the Coliseum entrance…”

He walked alongside Hercules, Donald and Goofy following them, as the four made their way around the back of the Coliseum.

“Well Sora, it turns out because of that connection from last time, there’s a portal to the Underworld just behind the Coliseum. Only a God or Demi-God can open it, so no wandering human can accidentally enter.” Hercules answered, reaching a nondescript door that seemed to be a back entrance to the Coliseum.

“My father couldn’t find a way to dispel the portal, but he could move it, so we agreed to hide it behind an easy to ignore door behind the Coliseum.”

Hercules opened the door, revealing a swirling black and purple portal not unlike a traditional portal of Darkness. Sora, Donald, and Goofy inspected the portal with caution, ultimately gasping in worry as they came to the conclusion that it was their only option.

“Alright Herc,” Sora said, “Let’s do it.”

“Let’s save Meg!” confirmed Hercules.

The four of them walked into the portal, transporting immediately to the Underworld.

Upon their entrance Sora, Donald, and Goofy instantly dropped to their knees in exhaustion, the effects of the Underworld still going strong.

“Oh right, the Olympus Stone.” said Hercules.

He reached into a pouch and gave his father’s stone to Sora, its magic negating the Underworld’s, refreshing the three back to their normal power.

“Thanks Herc.” said Sora, regaining his strength and standing up once more.

The trio studied the underworld, which was conspicuously smaller and more linear than they remembered. The cool grey and blue rocky caverns from their last journey had morphed into this straightforward, yet winding, passageway to a single set of doors barely a few Theban blocks away.

The group cautiously set forward down the rocky road, a deep and dark crevasse on either side. They made certain to not rush, but instead to tread lightly, wary of any possible traps that may be sprung from careless haste.

As they made their way, Sora broke the tense, focused silence.

“Hey, Herc. I got a question for ya.” he asked.

“You can ask me anything - but make it quick Sora, we’re already halfway there.” Hercules responded, voice genuine but still stern and quiet.

“Remember when I got here, how I said I needed to gain my strength?” he questioned.

Upon hearing the nature of the request, Donald and Goofy instinctively slowed their pace to give the two some respect and privacy, allowing Sora and Hercules to continue walking ahead.

Before Hercules could even open his mouth to answer, Sora continued, almost muttering. “Well, how should I… No, let’s see... I almost…” he trailed off and stopped in his tracks, thinking his words carefully before coming to something acceptable “Something happened to me, and I lost all my abilities from before. I guess I wanted to ask - have you ever lost your strength and gotten it back?”

Hercules stopped abruptly, with Donald and Goofy keeping their distance as they stopped. Hercules turned to Sora to answer him face to face.

Sora looked up to Hercules, eyes wide in curiosity, with a hint of emotions that Hercules had never seen in Sora before. A hint of emotions that Hercules had only seen in his own reflection before he trained with Phil. A hint of emotions that should never, ever, by the power of the Gods, make their home in Sora’s Heart.

Hercules saw in Sora’s eyes a hint of fear, mixed with self-doubt and sadness.

Hercules grabbed Sora’s shoulders, keeping eye contact with a serious yet concerned face.

“Sora,” he began,”I’m going to tell you what my father once told me. ‘A hero isn’t determined by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.’ You are by far, the strongest hearted person I have ever met.”

Hercules released one hand from Sora’s shoulder and pointed at Sora’s chest, directly above his heart. Sora’s eyes followed as he looked to where Hercules pointed.

“No matter what your physical strength is, no matter what you’ve learned and lost Sora, this right here,” he gently jabbed the area he pointed to for emphasis, “is what will always bring you back to who you are. It will always bring your strength back, as long as you follow it.”

Hercules smiled as he finished, and let go of Sora. “Now c’mon, Hero,” Hercules said, putting on his deeper ‘Hero Voice,’ “We’ve got a few people to save.”

Sora looked to Hercules’ face and smiled brightly, a grin full of pearly whites that stretched from ear to ear, and the two began to walk towards the door, a new spring in each of their steps.

Donald and Goofy hurried towards the two, looking at each other and smiling softly as they saw the happier, carefree Sora they knew and loved out on the forefront again, and caught up as they finally made it to the tall, rock door that led deeper into the Underworld.

Sora and Hercules looked at one another and nodded, both opening the door that hopefully lead to the next step of their mission.

* * *

 

At the base of Mount Olympus, Hades, Lord of the Dead, looked upon the mountain ahead of him, smiling at his plan to take them down. It was a win-win situation as far as he was concerned - the Gods would be too goody-goody to take down innocent lives, and should they be taken down he would have more souls in the Underworld anyway. It was foolproof.

He walked a few steps when he suddenly heard a whoosh, the telltale sign of a portal opening. Acting on his reflexes, he immediately shot a fireball in the direction of the portal as a warning shot, intentionally missing to strike fear to whoever interrupted his musing.

“Hey, now that ain’t no way to say hello,” said a gruff, familiar voice, “especially to your old pallies.”

Hades looked over to the portal and was greeted with the sight of Pete and Maleficent walking out, a lazy confidence  at home on Maleficent’s face and a prideful one making it’s home on Pete’s.

“Funny,” Hades began, as the portal disappeared, “I don’t remember you doing me any memorable favors. All right?” He made his way closer to the duo, “Now toodle-oo. The exit’s that way.” Hades pointed to his right, guiding the two away from his location.

“We are not here to help you…” Maleficent began, voice calm and regal, “All I need is a piece of information… Is there a distinctive black box in this world?”

Hades lowered his arms in thought, “Black box?”

* * *

Behind the door was a singular, empty, oval room with another door straight ahead. The lack of Heartless in the previous cavern, as well as the lack of, well, anything in this room, set the four heroes on edge. Sora, Donald and Goofy all summoned their weapons as Hercules dropped into a battle stance. All four pairs of eyes surveyed the room, which was as dark, dank, and rocky as the previous passageway, and minute after minute after minute after minute…

No ambush, no Heartless, no trap - nothing. Despite the nothing, nobody dared to dismiss their weapons, convinced that this was merely a setup for the room ahead, so that they may drop their defenses and then be ambushed. Possibly. The uncertainty was thick in the air and everyone kept quiet as the unspoken worry lay heavily in everyone’s thoughts.

Without breaking the silence the four made their way to the other door when from the middle of the room

White. All around them. A bright blinding light that encompassed the entirety of the not so large room appeared and obscured their vision, and then just as suddenly as it flashed, it was gone.

The four wiped their eyes to hopefully regain their vision when

“Wonderboy!”

Meg’s deep and usually sarcastic voice, now filled with relief and joy, filled the room as she ran towards Hercules and hugged him to the best of her ability. She let go and looked around, seeing Sora, Donald and Goofy.

“And I see you brought the twerps too,” she added, sarcasm returning to her voice. She then hurriedly grabbed Hercules’ hand in an attempt to drag him towards the entrance of the room, away from the second door.

“But we have to go - now! Hades is planning a trap. I’ll tell you on the way - c’mon Hercules move!” She yelled, and at that very second she finished, the entire room shook, a massive tremor that nearly sent everyone straight to the ground. Rocks from the ceiling began to fall as the now five companions regained their composure and ran back the way they came, dodging and protecting each other from wayward falling rocks and boulders.

As they made their way through the passage, rocks hurtling in every which way from deflections and tremors, Donald, the one in the front of the line, shouted back to everyone “Waaak! The portal’s closin’!!”

And indeed, the very portal they came in through was slowly but surely decreasing in size, a temptress teasing them, as if saying that of course they could make it in time.

Upon Donald’s yell though, everyone sped up to the best of their ability, sprinting the last of the way, and as they sped up, so did the portal. Decreasing in size, getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller, until the three travelers and the two locals squeezed through, the portal barely the size of Hercules

And made it. Just in time, as the portal engulfed itself, never to be seen again, as if it was never there to begin with - the door hiding the portal now leading to the stone walls of the Coliseum.

Heaving and panting and breathing heavily, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Hercules and Meg all looked solemnly at one another, waiting patiently for Meg to catch her breath and deliver the promised news that she carried.

“Okay,” Meg took a deep breath and began her explanation, “Hades is starting an army to attack Olympus - an army made from kidnapped people. He made deals with them that he’d release them if they joined. He tried to take me but, y’know, I’m a tough girl. Tie my own sandals and everything.” She attempted to lighten the mood but failed as Sora, Donald, Goofy and Hercules immediately realized what that meant - countless innocent people would be caught in a battle that they had nothing to do with, all because Hades was once again working on taking over Olympus for who knows what reason.

“We gotta tell Phil and warn the Gods on Olympus that Hades is going to attack.” said Hercules, making his way towards the front of the Coliseum. Sora, Donald and Goofy made there way to follow when Meg pulled Sora aside, letting Donald and Goofy go ahead.

“Sora, I’ve got somethin’ for you. I have no idea what it is, I just know you should have it.” said Meg, reaching into her sash and pulling out a wooden trinket. It was a tiny, intricately carved, steam train locomotive model, with a clip similar to a keychain on it. A train trinket like this one belonged nowhere in Ancient Greece, yet Meg had it in her hands, confusion to its appearance apparent on her face.

“Where’d you get this Meg?” Sora asked, accepting the trinket from Meg, unsure how she came into possession of it.

“It was just lyin’ around in the Underworld, and honestly I would've left it alone but something in my heart just kept telling me ‘That twerp junior hero’s gonna need it.’ I knew my heart couldn’t be wrong, so I picked it up from the floor to give it to ya next time I saw ya.” She responded, and began to make her way towards the front of the Coliseum where the rest of the group was likely waiting for them. “So take it, it’s yours kid.”

Meg smirked and saluted with two fingers as she walked off, leaving Sora alone to study the wooden train.

To say it looked similar to the Twilight Town trains would be a huge stretch of the imagination, the only similarities between the two being their round shape. The trinket had an intricately carved smokestack, which, if Sora didn’t know any better, he could have sworn there was just ever the lightest amount of smoke coming from it. Sora shook his head and placed the carved train in one of his pockets, and made his way to the rest of the group, who presumably were inside the entrance area waiting for Sora to catch up.

Sora has just turned the corner when he bumped into a wall of muscle that could only be Hercules, who stood still, unfazed by the sudden weight running into him. Sora took this to mean that something was happening so he immediately stepped to the side to get a view

Only to find that dark, swirling clouds were surrounding Olympus and floating above Thebes, Heartless running around, scavenging for hearts from the base of the hill stretching out far beyond Thebes’ borders, and lightning striking occasionally, the telltale sign that Zeus was mid battle.

“He used me to distract you - again!” Meg growled, her face scrunching up as her anger flared. “That fiery piece of trash has used me for the last time!”

Meg whistled loudly and turned to the group. “Hercules, I’m gonna evacuate the city. You and Sora take care of Hades and Olympus alright?”

As soon as Meg finished her orders, a blue-maned, white winged horse dropped from the heavens, just long enough for her to mount, before flying off towards Thebes, allowing Meg to make good on her part of the plan.

“Well ya heard the lady, go on! Get!” Yelled Phil at the remaining four heroes. That immediately snapped them out of their shock and Sora, Donald, Goofy and Hercules immediately ran for Olympus. As they left, Phil ran for Thebes, yelling out along the way.

“I’m right behind ya Meg!” Phil stopped and panted after a few paces, taking deep breaths. “I’m way...behind ya Meg…” He amended to himself.

* * *

The rocky mountain path to Olympus was slick, the dark clouds not just an ominous warning but also a genuine threat as the heavy rain poured down, impairing visibility and stability on the precarious path situated on the side of Mount Olympus.

With no choice but to err on the side of haste, rather than on the side of caution, Sora ran as close to top speed as he safely could, Kingdom Key in hand, as Donald, Goofy and Hercules followed a ways behind him.

“Herc!” Sora looked over his shoulder and called back towards, “How much further ‘til the top of the mountain?”

“We’re almost at the halfway point Sora!” Hercules yelled over the rain, intentionally lagging behind to bring up the rear in case of any from behind attacks.

“We hafta…” Sora muttered to himself, breath uneven from running, “...hurry up.”

With that Sora picked up his speed, forcing the rest of the team to run even faster. Sora ran and ran and ran, nothing but wet rock and rain and a slippery slope as he kept up the pace and went forward forward forward

Sora skidded to a stop at the sight he saw before him - a large, black, blocky boulder blocking the path, no way above or around it. Goofy skidded to a halt as Donald ran into him, and Hercules slid easily to a safe stop. All four of them stared at the boulder, its appearance and texture different than the rocks that come naturally from the mountain.

“Lythos…” muttered Hercules, recognizing the type of rock that originates solely from them.

“Lythos?” questioned Sora, unfamiliar with the name.

“They’re the two-headed Rock Titan. If they’re here who knows if any other Titans are loose…” Hercules responded, turning around to look at Thebes.

“Herc,” said Sora, “Go help Meg and Phil. They’ll need your help if there’s a Titan in Thebes. Donald, Goofy and I can take care of a Titan no problem.” Sora turned towards Hercules, raising his hands behind his head and gave Hercules a trademark Sora grin.

“We got dis!”

“Hyuck, we sure do!”

“Geez, we really owe you one. I’ll head back then!” said Hercules, who ran back down the mountain to where his help would be more necessary.

Sora, Donald and Goofy turned back towards the boulder, and Sora felt a tug in his chest. He summoned Kingdom Key and followed the feeling, jumping high into the air and slashing one, two, three times before landing on the other side of the blockage. Behind him, the boulder broke off into a multitude of pieces, all rolling and tumbling down the mountainside slope, opening the path for Donald and Goofy behind him.

With that, the three continued on their run, hoping to make it in time to assist the Gods on the mountaintop above. As they kept running, the mountain suddenly trembled, forcing them to stop or else lose their balance and fall over.

“You two alright?” Sora asked, looking behind to check on Donald and Goofy.

“We’re a-okay.” said Donald, letting go of the mountainside wall and giving a feathery thumbs up to Sora.

“Alright, let’s keep go-”

Before Sora could finish, a loud, deep, gravelly yell, almost a roar, reverberated throughout the mountainside, as a large boulder fell in front of the group and bounced off the path, down the slope.

The trio looked up to see none other than Lythos on a plateau about three-quarters of the way up the mountain.

Sora looked up, determination painting his face, and looked to Donald and Goofy.

“You two keep taking the path - I have an idea” Sora said.

The dog and duck ran along the path, as Sora ran towards the mountain wall. He felt a pull, once again following his heart, and jumped onto the wall, and to his glee he kept running up the wall, much more easily than he anticipated.

He ran up, dodging and deflecting rocks and boulders as they came down at him, trying to keep Lythos’ attention away from Donald and Goofy, to give them a safer route up the mountain.

“Okay, let’s do this!” Sora shouted.

Lythos flung a somewhat flat boulder at Sora, and he took his chance.

Sora ran towards the rock, jumping off of the wall into the rock, and used the force of the landing to propel himself atop the wide, flat overhang that Lythos themself was standing on.

Having reached the destination, Sora continued to play bait, dodging and weaving in between Lythos’ legs and deflecting and slashing through smaller rocks thrown at him.

“Waaaaaakkkkk!!!”

Sora heard Donald’s telltale scream from afar, and immediately ran in that direction, taking care to keep away from the debris. As Sora made his way closer to Donald and Goofy’s position, he felt something in his pocket heat up. Without looking, Sora reached in and grabbed the offending object, which turned out to be the wooden train trinket, glowing and heating up.

Sora suddenly felt the urge to place the train upon his chest, fighting it until he reached his companions. Seeing that the two were unhurt, Sora did as he felt, and the second the train made contact with his chest, a burst of Light exploded from it.

The next thing anyone knew, Sora, Donald and Goofy were upon a brilliantly lit train with open carts and an equally decorated locomotive chugging around the air following an invisible track that circled around Lythos.

“What’s this?” asked Goofy, amazed at the new power that Sora obtained, seemingly from nowhere.

“I dunno Goofy, but somethin’ tells me it’s gonna help give us an advantage!” Sora replied.

The train weaved and bobbed and weaved and bobbed around Lythos and through their legs and over and under their arms, always one step ahead of the boulders Lythos threw at the train.

As the train ran its course, Donald and Sora took the time to sling spells at Lythos, using the distance to their advantage, while Goofy would start attacking anytime the train was near enough to Lythos that his shield would work. At these times Sora swapped magic for physical attacks, knowing that the Keyblade would do more damage than the magic he could shoot.

Dodge

Weave

Shoot

Hit

Cast

Deflect

Dodge. Weave. Shoot. Hit. Cast. Deflect. Dodge. Weave. Shoot. Hit. Cast. Deflect. Dodge. Weave. Shoot. Hit. Cast. Deflect. Dodge. Weave. Shoot. Hit. Cast. Deflect. Dodge. Weave. Shoot. Hit. Cast. Deflect. Dodge. Weave. Shoot. Hit. Cast. Deflect. Dodge. Weave. Shoot. Hit. Cast. Deflect.

The battle went on, a repetitive combo of dodge, weave, shot, hit, cast, deflect, until in the middle of Donald’s cast, in the middle of Sora’s hit, in the middle of Goofy’s dodge

Lythos knelt over, his stamina worn down by the three adventurers. The train came to a stop on Lythos’ platform and disappeared, bringing the three to Lythos’ two heads.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy wasted no time in running to the heads and focusing all their power, all their spells, all their might to landing the final blows on the Titan. Blizzard after Shield Toss after Keyblade combo after Fire after Tornado Spin, finally, Sora landed an explosion on both heads at once, and the lights in Lythos’ four eyes finally dimmed, signifying they were knocked out.

Before Sora, Donald and Goofy could even look away, a dark portal opened under Lythos, taking their unconscious rock body to what the three could only assume would be the Underworld.

Sora spoke first, breaking the silence.

“Should we keep going or go back to Herc?” He asked, unsure of their course of action and their permission to make it to Olympus’ peak.

Goofy looked to Donald, pensive look on his face before shrugging, and Donald opened his beak to speak , barely getting a “Well…” out before sunlight shone through the heavy clouds above. In the heat of battle neither boy, dog nor duck had noticed the clouds thinning and the rain stopping. They all looked up to see the clouds continuing to clear, bright, warm, welcome sunlight heating and lighting the mountainside platform.

“..I guess that answers that!” Donald said, pointing towards the sky above.

“Guess Zeus took care of Hades.” Sora said, “So that’s two of three jobs done - let’s check out Thebes and make sure everyone’s sa-”

A loud neigh interrupted Sora, as a strong gust of air behind him nearly toppled him over. He turned around to see Hercules on Pegasus, a huge grin on his face.

“Hercules!!” Sora exclaimed, “You come to give us a ride down to Thebes?”

Sora grinned cheekily and pointed towards the town.

“Actually, I got orders to take you all somewhere better.” Hercules answered, and motioned for all three to climb onto Pegasus.

“Do all four of us fit there on that feller’s back, Herc?” Goofy asked, sizing up Pegasus’ back and counting to four on his hand.

“Don’t worry about it - Pegasus here can take you all no problem.” Hercules said, as he jumped off of Pegasus and made his way towards Sora. Before Sora could ask what Herc was doing, he picked up the trio and put them on Pegasus’ back, gently hitting his back to signal him to take off.

Immediately, Pegasus took to the sky as his three riders yelled in surprise, the speed at which everything happened taking them by surprise. On the platform below, Hercules ran up the mountain, certain he’d make it up not too long after Pegasus.

* * *

Pegasus landed ever so gracefully, to the delight of the three unprepared passengers who unceremoniously slid off of the winged horse much like a stone slides down a mossy trail.

Sora was the first to get up, head wobbling and worlds turning slightly, followed shortly by Goofy and Donald, the latter using the former for support.

“I’m never complaining about your Gummi piloting again Sora,” Donald began, eyes closed to stave off the spinning world around him, “Nothing will be worse than that.”

Goofy nodded silently, not confident in his abilities to speak without some unintended consequences caused by the dizziness.

As the three slowly recuperated from the dizzying flight, they looked around their surroundings.

They were nearly at the peak of Mount Olympus, having landed on a rocky outcropping merely a few feet from what would normally be considered a peak, except instead of finding the view of the areas below them, there were clouds all around, and a stairway of clouds that lead only higher to enormous, golden gates.

As the three looked on in awe, they heard a call from behind them. They turned to see Hercules making his way towards them, elated expression on his face.

“Much better than Thebes right?” Hercules asked. He made his way passed the much-less-dizzy heroes and motioned for them to follow him up the cloud staircase.

The three nodded in understanding and followed Hercules towards what they could only imagine was the home of the Gods. They made their way up the staircase in relative silence, the only sounds coming from the world around them and their feet stepping on the surprisingly marble-like cloud. Hercules kept quiet to surprise the three, while Sora, Donald and Goofy kept mum simply because they had never been to Olympus proper before, and thought that they should show the Gods they would likely visit at least some modicum of respect.

As the four nearly reached the gates, they slowly swung open, revealing the paradise hidden to mortal eyes, and out from the gates walked a rather large, built, burly God with long white curls and a long white beard, a grand purple chiton draped over his form.

“My boy!” he bellowed, arms outstretched towards Hercules.

“Father! I brought my friends like you asked.” Hercules responded, as he reached his father and the two embraced in a loving hug.

As Sora, Donald and Goofy reached the gates, Hercules freed himself from the hug and pointed towards the trio in tow.

“These are Sora, Donald, and Goofy - the ones who have saved the Coliseum multiple times, have saved Meg, and have defeated Lythos while we evacuated Thebes and you drove away Hades.” Hercules said, pointing to each as he named them. “And guys, this is my father - Zeus.”

Zeus turned to Sora, Donald and Goofy, who all looked up to him and snapped to attention.

“You three are merely travelers who have involved yourself so much in the affairs of this world, that I can only offer you my greatest and sincerest thanks. For helping my son, for protecting the love of his life, and for helping to protect this World from Hades and his darkness.” Zeus began, as he walked towards Sora, “For this, I will bestow upon you a gift - a medallion - “at this, Zeus pulled out a medallion similar to the Olympus Stone, engraved with the mark of the Gods, and placed it around Sora’s neck, “that will offer you protection and strength in your time of need.”

Zeus stepped away from the three and bowed in respect.

Sora, Donald and Goofy knelt down to the God of Gods for a moment, before stepping up once again. As they did so, he Kingdom Key summoned itself the same moment that Zeus’ gifted medallion began to glow.

“A new path’s gonna open!” Sora said delightedly. He immediately took off the medallion and let it float before him, and pointed his keyblade directly at it. A ray of light shot from the keyblade into a keyhole-shaped pattern of light on the medallion. The sound of a lock being turned filled the air as the medallion shifted into a keychain and attached itself to the Kingdom Key.

At once, the keyblade transformed - from the traditional silver and yellow to a form more fitting of the Gods. Or well, more fitting of Zeus anyway.

It’s hilt was a glorious golden reminiscent of lightning bolts, as was the shaft of the blade. Atop the shaft was a small bust of Zeus himself, seemingly made of marble, holding out another lightning bolt that made the teeth of the keyblade.

_Zeus’ Protection_ was the essence that Sora felt, knowing the name of the keyblade simply from his connection to it. He looked up to Zeus, who was grinning from ear to ear, and spoke.

“Thank you Zeus, but we’ve gotta go now. We’ll be back if you ever need us.” He said.

“We’ll always be here to protect the World Border!” Goofy added.

“That’s the World _Order_ , ya big palooka.” Donald corrected, knocking Goofy’s back with his staff in emphasis.

“And thank you for your help, Heroes.” Zeus said, and made his way back towards his home on Olympus, gates closing behind him.

With that, Hercules, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Pegasus made their slow yet joyful trek back towards the Coliseum. Hercules and Pegasus to continue helping Phil; Sora, Donald and Goofy to head back to the Gummi Ship and head to whichever new world was now available to them.

 


	4. The Adventurer's New Clothes

Inside the Gummi Ship, Sora, Donald and Goofy opened communications with Chip and Dale to check out the new information on their navigation panel.

“It looks like there’re two new worlds you can go to guys!” Chip exclaimed, “And it doesn’t look like you’ve been to either of them yet!”

“Alright!” said Sora, “Then let’s go to…”

Before Sora could pick a world, he was interrupted by Dale.

“Hold on fellers, we’ve got a signal coming from Yen Sid’s Tower.” He said.

“Looks like y’all should go there first.” continued Chip.

“When the master calls us it’s usually something big,” began Goofy, “I wonder what it’ll be this time.”

“So I guess the decision’s made guys. To Master Yen Sid.” Sora said. He flopped down into the pilot’s seat as Donald and Goofy sat in their respective seats, and began the trek to Yen Sid’s Tower.

* * *

Sora, Donald and Goofy exited the ship, walking from the green teleportation portal towards Yen Sid’s seemingly unstable tower. Donald and Goofy went ahead, as Sora looked around the surroundings - taking in the Tower that held many memories from the beginning of his second journey to the endings of his most recent one - and a purple train hovering off the side of the floating plateau caught his eye. A smile lit his features as he called out to Donald and Goofy.

“The train to Twilight Town’s still here!” Sora exclaimed, running to catch up to his companions. They looked back from their positions in front of the door and their eyes lit up for Sora, knowing he’d love to visit his friends on that world.

“Well, c’mon then Sora - we can visit them after we get Master Yen Sid’s news.” said Goofy, as he turned back around to open the door to the Tower.

Through the doors, into the main lobby, up the staircases and many rooms, the three finally made it to the door which led to the master wizard’s chamber. At once they opened the door and saluted to Yen Sid.

“Sora!"

“Donald!”

“And Goofy, a-hyuck!”

“Reporting for duty” the three chorused to the Wizard...

 

...Or they would have if he was there. Yen Sid’s desk was empty save for a parchment laying on top of it. The three eased their stances and walked towards the desk, the parchment gaining their attention.

On the parchment were the words “Key to Return Hearts” and there was a detailed drawing of an intricate keyblade, only slightly reminiscent of the Keyblade of Heart that Sora once used on himself, once upon a time. It looked like a more elegant, less angular, more welcoming version of said keyblade, although from the monochromatic illustration, it was impossible to tell if the coloring was the same or not.

“Ah yes, your next mission - the Key to Return Hearts.” came a deep voice from behind them, old and wise and knowledgeable from the years.

The three turned around to see Yen Sid, standing regally as the door closed behind him. He walked to his desk and took a seat, placing a hand on the parchment in front of him. Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned to face him again.

“I take it you all have already seen this illustration of the Key to Return Hearts on the parchment in front of you. Take note of it, for this will be necessary to assist you in mastering the power of waking. I’ve yet to discover the makings or whereabouts of this keyblade, though I will share with you any information I may come across in my studies. Is this understood?”

“Yes, Master Yen Sid.” chorused Sora, Donald and Goofy.

“Now, we have other matters at hand. Sora.” Yen Sid began.

“Yes?” responded Sora.

“In the chamber adjacent to this one, the three good fairies are currently creating a new gift for you. As of now it is incomplete. I had summoned the train to Twilight Town before your arrival, so that you may both monitor the town and visit your acquaintances there. You will be summoned once the three good fairies have completed your gift.” Yen Sid explained, motioning towards the door behind Sora.

Sora smiled an infectious smile, causing Donald and Goofy to smile and even Yen Sid to crack a small grin.

“Thank you Yen Sid.” Sora said, and turned around to make his way to the town.

“Before you go, Sora, I do have something to gift to you myself.” Yen Sid said, calling to Sora before he ran out completely.

Sora walked towards Yen Sid, and Yen Sid raised a hand over his desk. A brilliant white and yellow glow came and went in a flash, leaving a blue and silver star-shaped keychain behind. Yen Sid nodded towards Sora, giving him permission to pick it up. Sora did so and summoned Zeus’ Protection. He replaced the chain with the one Yen Sid gave him, keyblade temporarily turning to Kingdom Key in between the replacement.

Once the chain was in place, the keyblade transformed once more. It became a form akin to a shooting star - yellow star at the end, surrounded by a spiked blue circle, with the purple and yellow striped body acting as the tail of a comet. The hilt was gradated from silver to blue, with a silver shooting star atop the hilt connected to the body. The keyblade all but made its name known to Sora,  _Star Chaser_ echoing in his mind.

Sora looked at the keyblade in awe, feeling its potential for magical prowess as much heightened compared to his other two keychains - Kingdom Key providing a balance and Zeus’ Protection providing a more physical lean. He dismissed the keyblade, took a few paces back, and bowed once more in appreciation.

“Thanks again Master Yen Sid.” Sora raised from his bow, “I’m sure this’ll be helpful. I’ll be back when you call me.”

Yen Sid nodded sagely, and motioned with his hand towards the door, giving Sora permission to leave once again. With that, Sora turned on his heels and ran towards the exit.

Donald and Goofy made their way to follow Sora, but were interrupted mid-step by Yen Sid.

“Donald, Goofy” Yen Sid called to them, “I have a special mission for you regarding Sora. Close the door and I will disclose your new objective.”

Donald turned back to Yen Sid as Goofy shut the door.

* * *

Sora took a deep breath as he walked onto the station heights, the eternal sunset welcoming him to the town that was like a second home to him. He turned around and looked up at the clock tower above the station, smiling serenely at the memories Roxas had shared with him: the many real days with Axel and the few virtual days with Hayner, Pence and Olette. He stared for a while, feeling Roxas stirring within him, brought about by the familiarity of the town.

Sora looked to his left to see none other than a ghostly apparition of Roxas appear there, looking at Sora with gratitude and peace upon his face. Roxas turned his view towards the clock tower at the same time as Sora.

“Roxas,” Sora began, “I promise you that you’ll be your own person.” Sora turned towards Roxas, face determined and serious. He balled his hands into tight fists, shaking slightly from the force exerted at the action and looked towards the ground.

Roxas turned towards Sora, placing his transparent hands over Sora’s trembling ones. Though the gesture couldn’t be felt physically, the surge Sora felt in his heart made up for it. Sora looked up, face to face with Roxas.

“Sora, this is why it has to be you. Your bonds with us and your friends make you stronger. You don’t have to do this. But that’s exactly why you will.” With that Roxas let go from Sora’s now still hands, which unclenched at the loss of contact. “Thank you Sora, from me and -- “

The last word Roxas said went unheard - or rather, Sora could not comprehend the word and so it came out as merely static to Sora, whose confusion was apparent on his face.

“Wait, you and who?” Sora asked.

“You’ll meet them soon.” said Roxas, sad smile on his face. With that his ghostly form faded away, revealing the not so empty Station Heights alleyway behind him.

Sora focused on the far away yet quickly approaching figures, recognizing them instantly.

“Hayner! Pence! Olette!” He exclaimed, pushing the preceding events out of his mind for the time being. “How are all of you?”

“We’ve been awesome, Sora!” Hayner answered as he stopped just in front of Sora, sea-salt ice cream in hand.

“Better than awesome!” continued Pence, holding onto his own share of the Twilight Town delicacy.

“Well, we’d be better if these two would stop procrastinating on their summer homework.” Olette remarked, “But we did win an extra sea-salt ice cream bar in a raffle today, and then you show up right here!”

Olette then showed off the two bars she was holding, one in each hand, to Sora. She then moved one closer to Sora, offering it to him. He graciously took the ice cream in hand and held onto it carefully.

“The timing couldn’t have been any better!” Hayner said. He turned to Pence and Olette behind him. “Guys, let’s take Sora up to the clock tower with us. All agree?”

“Yeah!” “Of course!” the two chorused.

Olette looked towards Hayner, a small smile on her face. “We should probably ask Sora if he’d like to join, before we drag him up there without his okay, heh heh.” She said, and then looked to Sora. “Sora, would you like to join us on top the - “

The quick and excited “Of course!” that came from Sora’s lips did not come from Sora himself, though his answer would have been the same. Olette’s little gasp of surprise alerted Sora that his body had spoken even though he had yet to will it to. He knew immediately who answered through him, though, and continued as normal.

Sora scratched the back of his head with his free hand, smiling brightly. “Sorry Olette, it’s just been too long y’know?” he said, apologizing for the interruption.

“It’s okay Sora.” She responded.

“Alright then, let’s head up!” said Hayner, taking the lead towards the station as everyone else followed.

Having spoken through Sora, Roxas’ joy at seeing the real versions of his friends was too much for Sora to even feel any bit of ill will towards. False memories as they may have been, the feelings for the three in front of them were all too real to Roxas, and so Sora followed Hayner in silence, inwardly laughing at Roxas’ adorable expression of joy.

‘One day Roxas, it’ll be you climbing up these steps again, without me.’ Sora thought, aiming it specifically towards Roxas so that he may feel the sentiment.

* * *

“Donald, Goofy, you both must understand that this mission stems from my concern over Sora. As such, though it pains me greatly knowing that it will pain you as well, it must be kept secret from Sora.”

Yen Sid stood from his chair, and walked around the desk, stopping in front of the wizard and knight. “Do you understand that which I am requesting of you?”

“Yes, Master Yen Sid.” chorused Donald and Goofy, concern making its way onto their faces.

“I know that you trust Sora, but I fear that he may lose trust in you and myself if he were to learn about this request. It has come to my attention that the clothes which he currently wears have accidentally called upon the powers of darkness, creating what Sora has dubbed ‘Anti-form.’”

Yen Sid raised his hand and conjured an image of Anti-form to his left, Donald and Goofy turned their heads to the right to see the magical hologram.

“This was an aftereffect of Sora’s brief time as a Heartless. The new clothes I have asked the fairies to craft him will not have this side-effect. My concern is that should Sora release Roxas, the light in his heart will be halved. Should this happen, the darkness in his heart, small and contained as it may currently be, could potentially become unstable. You must report to me immediately if anything similar to this Anti-form occurs should Roxas’ separation from Sora be fruitful.”

“Gawrsh, Master Yen Sid, wouldn’t telling Sora about this mean he’ll be able to keep an eye on his darkness too?” Goofy asked, scratching his head at the thought of having to keep such important information secret from Sora.

Yen Sid sighed deeply, banishing the apparition of Anti-form while doing so.

“Therein lies another fear, Goofy. Should Sora learn about this, he will most undoubtedly ignore the warnings in order to release Roxas. My greatest concern about Sora learning about this information is not that he will think we find him weak, but rather, he will try to prove his strength to himself by hiding any signs of a growing Darkness from you.”

“That does sound like him awright.” said Donald, “He likes to make sure we’re not worrying about him.” Donald sighed wearily, not liking either option one bit.

On one wing, Sora should know about the potential dangers of releasing Roxas again, so that he can prepare mentally to fight against his inner Darkness. On the other wing, Yen Sid is absolutely right about Sora’s reaction - he would thrust Roxas’ well being far ahead of his own and would push even harder to free him, consequences be darned.

Donald looked to Goofy, his face a mirror image to Donald’s own, and they shared a look. A look of knowing, a look of agreement, and a look of subtle shame.

“We’ll keep an eye on him Yen Sid.” Donald said.

“We’ll tell ya everythin’ that happens ta him.” said Goofy.

“Thank you both, Donald, Goofy. Your cooperation is much appreciated. Onto other matters, feel free to rest in this Tower while Sora is in Twilight Town. I will send you to retrieve him once his new clothes have been completed.”

With that, Yen Sid took a seat at his desk once again, and with a wave of his hand, opened the door leading out of his chamber, into the rest of the Tower.

* * *

The eternally setting sun never got old, the three locals and the one visitor (or two visitors depending on who you asked) equally admired the many golds, reds, and oranges littering the sky.

Sora rested his head on his hands, ice cream stick precariously hanging from his mouth, lazy smile making its home across his face. He looked to his right, towards Hayner, Pence and Olette, a nostalgia that wasn't his washing over his heart. He felt himself drift back, and felt his lips move of their own accord again.

“Hey, guys, wanna learn somethin’?” asked Roxas.

“We’ve got enough learning in school, what’s the deal?” said Hayner.

Olette nudged Hayner forcefully yet playfully at his response, and turned her head towards Sora.

“What’ve you got for us, Sora?” asked Olette.

‘Sora’ subtly tensed a bit at the name, but leaned back comfortably anyways, and raised his arm, lazily pointing towards the sun. “Bet you three don’t know why the sun sets red.”

“I think we went over this a bit in Science. Something about wavelengths, right? And how red has the longest one?” asked Pence.

“Yeah,” continued Roxas, “Because of that, out of all the colors of light, red’s the one that travels the farthest. So when the sun starts setting around the world, the other colors aren’t reaching us as much.”

“I thought you haven’t been in school in years because of all the keyblade business. How’d you learn that?” asked Olette.

“A friend told me.” was the short, yet truthful response Roxas said through Sora’s lips.

“Uh, guys…” Hayner began, pointing towards the town. “You might wanna look over at the Tram Common…”

Roxas drifted back to give Sora control again, and Sora, Olette and Pence looked in the direction Hayner pointed. A large, swirling mass of Darkness was making its way around the Tram Common area of the town, and all four knew Sora had to go.

“I gotta take care of that guys…” he said, throwing the empty ice cream stick down as he abruptly stood up on the clock tower. “You three need to get to safety.”

“No need to tell us twice.” said Pence, getting up alongside Hayner and Olette. All four made their way down to Station Heights below, and split off. The Twilight Town locals made their way to the Usual Spot, a safe haven that to this day has been free of Heartless. Sora on the other hand, made his way towards the Underground Concourse, using that as a shortcut to the Tram Common.

* * *

Reaching the Tram Common left Sora full of unease. The shops were empty from their usually present shopkeepers and the typically walking locals nowhere in sight. The emptiness brought back memories of Roxas’ time in the simulated Twilight Town, and both of them felt the uncanniness that came from seeing a lively area be completely still.

Sora immediately made his way towards the back wall, only to hear a rumbling coming from his right as he crossed the bridge. He jumped down and summoned Kingdom Key, preparing for a battle.

As soon as the light from the keyblade’s summoning faded, a writhing, swirling, demonic mass of shadows rushed from around the corner that led to the Sandlot. Seeing the enormous tower of Heartless, Sora immediately ran backwards, luring them closer to himself. He went under the bridge and as soon as the tower of shadows nearly caught up to him, he jumped onto a nearby wall to avoid the shadows’ writhing, swinging claws.

From the wall he landed on the surprisingly solid mass of Shadows, the head of the tower heading towards the now sealed back wall of the town. Before they hit the wall, however, the tower began to curve backwards and Sora jumped off of the shadows before the surface he was on disappeared, and ran off to the side to keep an eye on the shadows.

He noticed the shadows curved backwards then forwards, then in a loop, then repeating the first two curved again. Before Sora could even think, could even compare those motions to any letters or possible meaning, the tower launched themselves at him. He reacted quickly, and launched himself at the head in turn, overhead swing ready.

He landed the swing successfully, knocking off a few shadows as the tower moved underground for a few seconds. Some of the loose shadows made their way back to the tower, but not before Sora took out the rest with well timed swings of the keyblade. He jumped up and ran around the building tops in the Tram Common, keeping an eye on the currently underground and impenetrable tower, waiting to strike.

He saw the tower as it began to breach the floor and prepared a Blizzard spell, only to see a Thunder spell hit at the same time as a Shield that knocked loose a few more shadows and bounce back towards its owner.

“Boy am I glad to see you two!” called Sora from his perch on the rooftop. “Let’s take this tower down!” He jumped off the roof towards his companions who ran in from the direction of Market Street, joining the two in their usual battle stances. Immediately the three ran towards the straggler shadows and defeated them, helping to reduce the size of the tower, marginal as it may be.

A Blizzard here, a Thunder there, a Tornado strike in between, and keyblade strikes all around, the three fell into a pattern of casting, slicing, striking, and thrusting, slowly but surely whittling down the size of the Tower.

Five shadows here, three shadows there, another six shadows immediately after. Each attack dislodging a few shadows to be taken care of, each wave of shadows struggling to make it back to the Tower, each shadow being destroyed by one of the three travelers. Every hit, every spell, every toss led the Tower and the fighters closer and closer towards the back wall of the Tram Common.

As the Tower dwindled in numbers, Sora, Donald and Goofy looked to one another and nodded.

“Trinity!” Sora called out to the other two, letting them know of the plan he was forming on the fly.

Donald and Goofy teamed up with Sora, and together all three unleashed Trinity Limit - starting with a barrage of air attacks through Break, leading into luring the remaining Tower Shadows closer and attacking them with a barrage of fireworks, then coming together and shooting a beam of magic towards Shadows, and finally ending with Sora, Donald, and Goofy standing in a circle and drawing their weapons towards the center, beams of light erupting from the center and destroying the final vestiges of the Tower.

The three looked at one another happily and dismissed their weapons as Sora hugged the dog and duck.

“Your timing was perfect guys!” he said, finally releasing the two from his hug, “I woulda had trouble on my own. Thanks!”

“Ah, it was nothin’ Sora,” said Donald, “Yen Sid sent us here because those new clothes are ready!”

“Yeah, it was just really good luck, a-hyuck!” said Goofy.

The three laughed at the timing before Sora caught a glimpse of the back wall of the Tram Common.

“Oops…” he said, pointing towards the newly formed crack in the back wall. It was as tall and wide as it was during Sora’s previous time in Twilight Town, and in the exact same place too - the newly renovated area seemingly too weak to withstand a Trinity Limit compared to the older walls around it.

“I mean, I guess if we need to go to the mansion we can now?” Sora said, trying to lighten the mood. “Let’s just… get back to Yen Sid’s yeah, haha….”

With that Sora looked around to make sure there were no witnesses, and made haste towards the Market Street gate. Donald and Goofy shared a quick laugh before following Sora to Yen Sid’s Tower.

* * *

“Donald, Goofy, thank you for fetching Sora.” Yen Sid said upon the trio’s entrance to his chamber. “Sora, if you may please enter the Wardrobe Room to your right. The three fairies have completed your gift.”

“Yes, Master Yen Sid.” Sora said, and headed towards the Wardrobe Room where the fairies were waiting. Donald and Goofy held back, waiting for him to step out again.

As soon as Sora entered the room he was face to face with three short, friendly ladies, donning near identical outfits in red, green and blue.

“Sora, hello!” greeted the red fairy, known as Flora.

“It’s great to see you again, dear.” said the green fairy, known as Fauna.

“We’ve got a surprise for you!” said the blue fairy, known as Merryweather.

“Lemme guess. New clothes?” said Sora, crossing his arms and smiling deviously at the three fairies in front of him.

“Oooh who told?!” Merryweather said, looking rather cross at her sisters.

“Now now, Merryweather,” began Flora, “He did get clothes the last time he visited us.”

“It’s also possible that Master Yen Sid told him too!” said Fauna.

Merryweather took a deep breath and calmed down, still saddened that the surprise was ruined.

“Ready Sora?” Flora asked, turning from Merryweather to Sora.

Sora nodded, mentally preparing himself for another Red or Blue battle between the sisters.

“Ready girls?” Flora continued.

“Ready!” “Yup!” Chorused the two.

“And a one, and a two, and a three!” Flora counted.

As soon as the three left her lips, all three fairies pointed their wands at Sora, Red, Green and Blue magic swirling around him. He felt his clothes change form on him - his gloves receded from his hands, leaving his palms bare, as they lengthened to cover his forearms. His jacket didn’t change much in shape, although he felt a new fold appear on the chest, and felt the hood thicken up. His shorts elongated slightly more down his calves, as they kept their bagginess on his legs. He felt the loss of a few belts but felt his side pockets enlarge and felt pocket appear at the top of the shorts. His shoes diminished in size, as their tops went higher on his ankle.

When the magic finished Sora looked at his new grey, red, and black outfit in awe. He felt a new power surging through him, one that he felt could be unlocked with his keyblade in battle. He looked at his newly bare palms, the loss of cloth in that area feeling odd at first. He looked in a nearby mirror and noticed the plaid detailing on his jacket - a pattern he had never worn before. Throughout the entire inspection of the new outfit he did notice one thing - there were no Xs at all that he could see.

“Now don’t you look dashing, Sora?” asked Flora.

“And we packed a nice punch in that outfit there too!” explained Merryweather, “It works like the drive forms but - well you’ll see!”

“Thanks so much!” Sora said, and graciously bowed his head slightly.

“Oh dear, it was no problem at all” said Fauna.

The other two fairies nodded in agreement at Fauna’s statement as they looked to Sora.

“Well, dear, it seems that our work is done. Now your journey can continue again. And remember Sora, your new clothes work with your bonds as well, but in a different way.” said Flora.

“Thanks again, girls. Donald, Goofy, and I have gotta get going, but we’ll try to visit here if we can!” Sora said, and turned around, walking out of the Wardrobe Room.

He heard some mumbling behind him but paid no mind to it, assuming that it wasn’t intended for him to listen to anyways, although he did pick up the word “darkness.” Excited to head to the new worlds though, he put that behind him and assumed the fairies were talking about him defeating the darkness - it only made sense!

As he opened the door, he heard twin gasps from his companions.

“Whoah, Sora!” said Goofy, looking Sora up and down at the well-fitted outfit.

“You have normal shoes!” exclaimed Donald, completely mesmerized by the lack of oversized shoes he became used to seeing on his companion.

“Says the duck who doesn’t wear any.” Sora retorted, then blew a raspberry at Donald.

“I see the gift suits you perfectly, Sora.” Yen Sid said from his desk, still seated just as Sora left him.

“Yes, it fits perfectly and I feel a new power waiting to be used. I’ve already thanked them, but could you thank them again for me, Master Yen Sid? They’ve really outdone themselves this time.” Sora said, pointing to the new clothes adorning his figure.

“Of course, Sora. Now, I take it you have more worlds to visit?” questioned Yen Sid.

The three took this as their signal to leave, saluting Yen Sid and chorusing “Goodbye, Master Yen Sid!” before taking off towards the Gummi ship.

* * *

In the Lanes Between, the scenery is always easily likened to a night sky - shining worlds everywhere, darkness and nothingness between each. Sora, Donald and Goofy checked the navigation screen and marveled at the two new worlds available to them.

Nearby was a world known as the Kingdom of Corona, one that Sora assumed was a world full of knights, magic, thieves and other beings of what once were considered fairy tales to him, if his previous adventures have taught him anything.

A little further off was a world known as Sea of the Voyagers, which Sora believed to be a mostly waterlogged world with a probable transformation. He decided to mark that as a “Let’s Visit This Second” type of world, wanting to put off any transformation for a little later.

“So Sora,” began Donald, “Where are we going next?”

“Let’s save a princess! Kingdom of Corona it is!” Sora exclaimed, and took a seat in the pilot’s chair. Donald and Goofy followed suit in their own seats, and Sora began navigation towards the Kingdom of Corona.

* * *

A portal of Darkness opened in the middle of a large, dark room. From the portal walked out Maleficent and Pete, who walked towards a window, Maleficent heading the duo.

The window overlooked a small, sleepy, and probably empty town made of islands suspended in the air, each building and island connected to one another through many long, thick cables, acting as both anchors to each island and a means of transportation between them.

The building that Maleficent and Pete currently resided in as their hideout was located squarely in the middle of the town, clouds and fog keeping and citizens, if any were there, none the wiser about the villains scheming in their town.

“Pete, do you know why we are meticulously searching for that black box?” Maleficent asked, not once taking her eyes off of the cloudy, foggy town below.

“Erm… Because there’s some kinda treasure in there?” he asked, carefully choosing his words.

“Not precisely. That black box is linked to the first Keyblade War, and it is likely that it holds some form of unknown power linked to the Book of Prophecies.” she explained, “That power can assist me, the Mistress of all Evil, in obtaining power over the worlds that not even that fool Xehanort can oppose - and if even he cannot oppose, then there is no way that the troublesome keyblade wielder Sora will meddle as easily as he has in the past.”

She turned from the window, facing Pete with a sly grin upon her face. “We will be an unstoppable force.”

“So dat’s why. You’re smart as always, Maleficent!” Pete said, “So, what do ya need me ta do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It may not be the most consistent schedule, but I hope you're enjoying it!


	5. It's Always Sunny in Corona

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a while to get this chapter out because 1) Ch. 6 just didn't wanna be written and 2) I was in the path of Hurricane Irma and was without power for 83 hours and didn't have internet during that time.
> 
> Yeah, I know excuses excuses, but I will do my best to get the next chapters out in a more consistent manner. c:
> 
> Until next time, enjoy!

* * *

The world that greeted the trio was one of bright sunlight that lived up to the name. The forest they landed in was well lit by the natural light from the sun, despite the abundance of trees with an abundance of leaves around the area. The grass on the ground, the leaves on the trees and even the vines on the rocks were such a verdant green that neither Donald, nor Goofy, nor Sora thought they had ever seen such green, well, greens.

To their left were many large rocks and boulders with long, thick vines draping down them, and to their right was the forest, thick and green and quiet.

Sora, Donald and Goofy heard some rustling from the vines, and hid behind some nearby rocks - despite all of their interference in previous worlds, this was a new world they had never seen before. The three had decided to hide in case if the rustling belonged to a possible enemy or one of the Organization.

To their surprise, a woman walked from out of the vines, dark red dress and black hooded cape the only visible features. She carried a woven basket and muttered angrily below her breath, too low for Sora, Donald and Goofy to pick up, but just loud enough that they could tell she would not be one to cross.

Sora looked to his companions and put his finger to his mouth, the universal symbol for “keep quiet.” The other two nodded and just watched silently over the rocks, waiting until the woman passed far into the forest before coming from their hiding spot and inspecting the vines.

“Why didn’t ya wanna talk ta her Sora?” Donald asked, curious as to Sora’s reasoning for not interacting with a denizen of this world.

“Something about her seemed.... Off? Dunno how to explain it but… Hm…” Sora trailed off, bringing a hand to his chin as he thought how to best describe the feeling.

Goofy and Donald allowed him to think for a few moments, looking to one another and back to Sora when he surprised them both with a loud “Got it!”

He hit his fist against his palm as he vocalized his excitement.

“You know how, sometimes, when we’re in danger, my Keyblade comes without me calling it? Well with her, I was trying to keep it from coming. The Keyblade knows something about her and I wanna wait until we know more about this world before we do something.” He finally explained, uncertainty evident in his voice.

Donald and Goofy looked to Sora with cautious understanding on their faces, and nodded grimly. The trio then looked at the vines the woman had just come out from.

“Well, guys, are we gonna explore or what?” Sora asked, moving aside some of the vines and walking in.

Donald and Goofy followed him behind the vines, and all three immediately stopped upon entering, gasping at the sight before them.

Hidden behind the rocks and vines was a large clearing, with grass, flowers, the occasional tree and even a small pond. However, that was not what made them gasp, oh no. It was the tall, stone tower in the middle of the clearing that did that. It looked almost decrepit but most surely had to be where the woman from earlier came from, as it was the only building in said clearing.

As the trio walked forward, bursts of darkness appeared all around them - Heartless. Star Chaser came into Sora’s hand in a flash of light as Donald and Goofy summoned their staff and shield respectively. These heartless were different from the others they’ve fought, taking the form of giant dandelions brought to life by darkness.

At once the trio attacked - Goofy throwing his shield as usual, Donald slinging Fira spells at the grass-type heartless, and Sora swapping between keyblade strikes and Fira spells. One of the large dandelion Heartless expelled a burst of spores, causing the trio to retreat a few paces in case this was a poisonous attack.

Only instead of an attack, the spores became more heartless - dandelion seed-like heartless and the dandelion flower-like heartless that carried them focused their attention on Sora and prepared to attack him. Sora anticipated the heartless targeting him - it is after all, par for the course as a keyblade wielder. Both sides rushed one another and broke off - Sora near a small pond with the flower-type heartless and a few seeds, and Donald and Goofy a couple paces away with the rest of the seed-type heartless.

Sora noticed that the flower-like heartless was already starting to grow more seeds, thus he decided to focus his attacks on the larger heartless and left the seed-like heartless to Donald and Goofy. He went in with barrages of swings and strikes and Firas, balancing between defense and offense as each flower-like heartless did the same. A keyblade swing here, a petal swipe there, a Fira in between, a burst of probably poisonous gas after.

The battle wore down the trio, but the heartless’ numbers were also whittled down as the battle lingered on, the occasional smattering of pink hearts flowing upwards a familiar sight. A string of Firas, a couple of shield hits, and a few keyblade swings took out a majority of the seed-heartless and one of the flower heartless. All that were left were a smattering of seed-heartless and the remaining flower heartless. The trio kept at it, Sora focusing his energy on the flower heartless as Donald and Goofy remained focused on the seeds.

Jumping and dodging away from the swipes and gas emissions took a toll on Sora’s energy, so he swapped from primarily physical attacks to focusing on ranged magic attacks. As he cast a Fira, he saw another one burst past him from behind as a flaming shield zoomed right after, the three attacks coming together to deal the last bits of damage to the final flower heartless, causing a pink heart to float away to freedom.

Sora, Donald and Goofy were a little worn from the battle, breathing heavily and trying to catch their breath.

“Well, quite the welcoming party eh?” Sora asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Sora took a step forward when he noticed something golden and bright being thrown out of the tower, and immediately ran in its direction when he noticed a young woman jumping out, hanging onto the… hair?

Sora, Donald and Goofy paused, unsure of what they were seeing - a girl just used her extremely long golden hair to safely jump off of a giant tower in the middle of a clearing. She landed happily, rolling in the grass and jumping around without a care, all while holding onto a single frying pan. She continued her celebration until she caught sight of Sora, Donald and Goofy.

The young woman quickly yelped, and backtracked towards the tower, running to hide behind a man who just finished his climb down. She grabbed onto him with one hand and held her frying pan out towards the trio. The man looked at Sora, Donald, and Goofy with apparent confusion on his face, and just a hint of exasperation as well.

“Hello!” cried Sora to the two, as he slowly approached with Donald and Goofy behind him, “I’m Sora, and these are Donald and Goofy. We just came into this clearing on accident - we’re not here to hurt anyone.”

“Are.. Are you sure you’re not ruffians? Or thugs?” the young woman asked from behind the man, lowering her frying pan cautiously.

“Nah, we’re the people who take care of ‘em.” said Sora with a bright smile on his face.

“Well there, Spikey, I’m Flynn Rider. Yes, yes, THE Flynn Rider.” The man, Flynn, said to Sora, an air of inflated ego surrounding him.

“I’m kinda new to these parts. Sorry but, never heard of ya.” Sora said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

“Oh, come on! First Blondie and now someone else who doesn’t know my greatness?” He looked from Sora to the blonde woman behind him, then up to the sky. “You’re really testin’ my patience today, aren’t ya?” He muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I’m Rapunzel.” said the young woman, finally out from behind Flynn. She pointed to a chameleon on her shoulder that undid its camouflage, “This is my buddy, Pascal. And this piece of work,” she said as she pointed to Flynn, “is my escort.”

“Oh, are you a princess, Rapunzel?” said Goofy, noticing that she used the term escort.

“Her?” “Me?” Flynn and Rapunzel said together, before Flynn broke down laughing and Rapunzel giggled at the thought.

“Blondie, a princess! Ha! Oh the thought!” Flynn muttered between laughs and breaths.

“No no no, I’m no princess.” she said, “He’s helping me survive the forest of ruffians and thugs so I can see the floating lights.”

“You mean the stars?” asked Donald.

“They’re not stars. They don’t have a set pattern - these lights float once a year, every year, on the night of my birthday without fail - like floating lanterns. And I’m going to see them in person tomorrow night.” Rapunzel clarified, quickly and effortlessly, as if she had already made that distinction a few times today. On her shoulder, Pascal moved his head from side to side, as if in a an annoyed mocking motion - odd thing coming from a chameleon.

“Well if you don’t mind, Donald, Goofy and I would love to help. Just before you came down, some creatures showed up that we know how to take care of, and we want to help you two get to the lanterns safely.” began Sora, “Think of it as our birthday present to you!”

“Well, now, Spikey - “

“It’s Sora.”

“ - Sora… Y’see, Blondie and I have a bit of a deal - I take her to see the lights, she gives me a thing I lost that she has. I mean, really, there’s just no room for three extra… people.” Flynn quickly responded, and pointed towards Rapunzel as he mentioned her.

Rapunzel pouted at Flynn, arms crossed in annoyance. Pascal did his best to mimic her expression.

“Flynn, more people helping means less work for you to do.” She said in a sing-song manner, trying to appease to the easygoing side of him that seemed to dominate his choices.

Flynn looked towards the trio, then back to Rapunzel, pout still on her face. He sighed heavily and rolled his eyes as he gave his answer “Alright Rapunzel, the three newbies can join. I mean, hey, you got more escorts, I got less work. So, let’s get going then, I guess.”

With that, Flynn walked towards the vines, motioning for the remaining four to follow him. Having nowhere else to go, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Rapunzel followed Flynn passed the vines and into the clearing. The second they passed through Rapunzel hugged her frying pan close to her chest and whispered with wonder in her voice “I can’t believe I did this…”

And immediately after her whisper, she gasped loudly, grasping her hair in one hand and yelled with anxiety in her voice, “I can’t believe I did this!”

She stopped in her steps, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Flynn staring at her in surprise.

Rapunzel then laughed heartily, and ran towards Flynn, yelling “I can’t believe I did this!” as she hopped around Flynn in excitement, frying pan still in hand. Pascal hopped from Rapunzel to Flynn during this, attempting to get away from her intense motion. Her laughter slowed and became more nervous as she stopped hopping around Flynn. Her excitement waned into nerves as she began to pace

“Mother would be so furious…” She muttered to herself, still pacing back and forth, heading further from the group with each lap. She eventually came to a small ravine which the others followed her to, and sat down on a rock, picking up some water lilies as she sat, frying pan now resting on her lap.

“Well, that’s okay! I mean, what she doesn’t know won’t kill her right?” she asked, as if attempting to convince herself. She dropped the lilies, picked up the pan once more, and ran across the ravine towards a nearby cave, exploring, before groaning and dropping down to the floor. She grabbed her knees and looked around the semi-lit cave, and began slowly rocking back and forth, horror in her eyes.

“Oh my gosh…” she said, looking back to the four at the cave entrance, “This would kill her!”

Rapunzel rocked for a few moments, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Flynn deciding to give her some time to adjust, when she ran past them, unbridled glee in her eyes as she began frolicking in the grass, kicking up dirt and flowers and water from the ravine and waving her frying pan in the air. She laughed and looked back towards her group of escorts, yelling out to them “THIS IS SOOOOO FUN!!”

She stopped in front of a wide tree and placed her frying pan in her mouth, and began to climb. Her climb was hindered only by her inexperience with bark, and she climbed otherwise fairly deftly towards the first large branch she could sit on, somehow still holding onto the frying pan’s handle with her teeth.

She hoisted herself atop the thick branch, taking the frying pan out of her mouth as she stood on the branch, just as the others walked just under her, still silent and in shock from the unintentional show that Rapunzel was giving them. She looked around and caught sight of the rock face that led to her tower, and immediately turned towards the large trunk. She knocked her head into it and kept it there, arms heavy at her sides.

“...I’m a horrible daughter… I’m going back.” she said morosely, and then lifted her head from its resting position on the trunk, as if realizing what she just said. She then grabbed her hair and lassoed it around a higher branch as a pulley to lower herself from the tree, and began walking in the direction of the tower. She then began sprinting, jumping, then immediately went into a cartwheel, proclaiming “I am NEVER going back!” while whooping in joy, frying pan left at the edge of the tree.

A few cartwheels later she slowed her pace and went face down straight to the ground, not even bothering to pick herself back up. She lay there in silence before speaking up.

“I am a despicable human being.” Rapunzel said, voice muffled from her position against the grass. Sora, Donald and Goofy were still silent in a confused surprise, unsure of what else may come from their new friend. Flynn, on the other hand, was leaning against the tree from earlier, just calmly keeping an eye on the four in front of him. He counted to three under his breath, having caught onto Rapunzel’s pattern and as he said three she picked herself up from the ground.

He went to say something to her but she was too quick - she had already thrown her hair like a lasso to one of the higher branches on the tree and she gave herself a running start, jumping after she had gotten enough momentum.

“WOO-HOO! BEST! DAY! EVER!” She proclaimed as she swung around the tree, excitement from earlier guiding her impulsive actions once more. At this point, Sora, Donald and Goofy had decided to sit by the tree, waiting with Flynn until Rapunzel tired herself out before all of them could continue on their journey. Her swinging slowed after a few minutes, and as she came to a stop the joy on her face slowly melted into sorrow. She looked around, walked a couple of feet away from the tree and sat forcefully onto the ground. She pulled her knees up to her chest once more and sniffled, which then opened the gates to full on silent, but sniffly, crying.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy made their way towards her, but Flynn was already nearby, holding onto her frying pan, Pascal settled firmly on his shoulder.

“Y’know,” Flynn began, standing next to Rapunzel, “I can’t help but notice you’re a little at war with yourself here.”

Rapunzel looked up to Flynn in confusion.

“What?” she questioned.

“Now, I’m only picking up bits and pieces here, of course.” He began, settling into a comfortable standing position as Rapunzel stood up. “Overprotective mother, forbidden road trip - I mean, this is serious stuff. But let me ease your conscience,” Flynn said as he took a breath, “This is part of growing up. A little rebellion, a little adventure - that’s good! Healthy, even!” He looked to his shoulder and carelessly brushed Pascal off.

Sora came to Rapunzel with Donald and Goofy behind him.

“He’s not wrong, in a weird way.” Sora said, resting his arms behind his head, “I mean, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t plan a secret vacation with my best friends a few years ago.”

“See Blondie?” Flynn said, using Sora’s own example to his advantage.

Rapunzel chuckled at the two who tried to cheer her up.

“You think?” she asked, unsure about the health of it but feeling a little better at not being the only person to sneak out.

“Oh, I know.” said Flynn, walking to a nearby grapevine “You’re way overthinking this. Does your mother deserve it? No. Would this break her heart and crush her soul? Of course! But you’ve just got to do it.”

“Hey, now I don’t think that’ll help he-” Sora began, but was cut off by Rapunzel’s question.

“Break her heart?” she asked Flynn.

“In half.” he said, without missing a beat, as he plucked a grape off of a vine.

“Flynn, maybe you should sto-” Sora said, only to be once again interrupted.

“Crush her soul?!” Rapunzel asked, oblivious to Sora, energy and anxiety high from Flynn’s manipulations.

“Like a grape.” Flynn crushed the grape between two fingers effortlessly.

Rapunzel looked towards the ground.

“She would be heartbroken…” she said, unmoving from her position, “You’re right.”

“Wait a minute, he’s just -” Sora started, again, and was interrupted, again.

“I am, aren’t I? Oh bother!” Flynn said, loud enough to overpower Sora’s voice volume, “All right, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m letting you out of the deal.”

“What?” asked Rapunzel, confusion apparent on her face.

“That’s right, but don’t thank me. Let’s turn around and get you home.” Flynn said and handed Rapunzel her frying pan and Pascal. “Here’s your pan, here’s your frog.”

He placed an arm around her as if to lead her back towards the tower, continuing to speak to Rapunzel.

Sora looked towards Donald and Goofy, unsure what to do. “Should we… let this play out?” he asked. “Rapunzel does seem to be catching on…”

“No! I am seeing those lanterns!”

Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned back to see Rapunzel pushing Flynn away. The three summoned their weapons in preparation to defend Rapunzel. Seeing her backup, Flynn groaned in exasperation.

“Oh, come on! What is it going to take for me to get my satchel back?” He pleaded to Rapunzel.

Rapunzel held her frying pan towards Flynn, intent to strike apparent in her face, just as Sora, Donald and Goofy made it behind her as her backup.

“I will use this.” she threatened.

Flynn held his hands up in surrender.

“Alright, alright, fine!” he said, putting his hands down, “Follow me, I know a great place we can at least grab some lunch  at.” With that he smirked, and motioned for the four to follow him into the forest.

Rapunzel lowered her pan as Sora, Donald and Goofy dismissed their weapons. “At least, he’s going away from the tower?” Sora said, attempting to find the bright side of the situation.

“Yeah, there’s that.” Rapunzel said, giggling at Sora’s attempt at humor.

The four then made their way to follow Flynn through the forest that none of them were familiar with.

* * *

 A white horse with a mane pulled into several buns patrolled the forest. At various intervals he would sniff the ground, as if searching for a scent. In his haste, he bumped into a woman donning a red dress and black capelet, holding a basket to gather berries - Mother Gothel, Rapunzel’s mother.

She grunted at being hit by the large animal, and dusted herself off as she gathered her bearings.

“Ugh, a palace horse.” She said, recognizing the telltale mane and saddle decor.

“Wait, where’s your rider?” She questioned, processing that the horse was, indeed, alone.

“Rapunzel!” she gasped, and made her way to the tower as the horse stared at her.

As she passed through the vines leading towards the tower, the sky overhead was cloudy - a rarity in the usual sunny Kingdom of Corona - she took a look at the unbeknownst to her empty tower.

She ran to her usual spot underneath the window and tittered nervously.

“Rapunzel,” she called out in a singsong manner, “let down your hair!”

She tapped her foot after a few moments of waiting, no response from Rapunzel.

“Rapunzel!!” she called again, more anxiously. After a few more moments of silence, she ran towards the back of the tower and tore away vines and moss, revealing a hidden doorway on the ground level. She ran up the secret stairwell, calling Rapunzel’s name in vain.

She opened a trapdoor leading to the main room of the tower and searched her home.

“Rapunzel?!” she called, frantically, moving every curtain, opening each door, and generally ransacking the place to search for the missing girl.

She stopped in the center of the room, light coming in from the recently pulled curtain. Despite standing in the light, another source, a reflection, came onto her eyes and messed with her vision. She looked and saw something shiny reflecting the light hidden under the bottom most stair. She opened the said stair and saw a satchel inside. The satchel contained a silver tiara with crystals, which she tossed aside in disbelief.

She pulled out the satchel’s other contents, a wanted poster with a well-groomed thief with a rather large hooked nose depicted on it. She held the poster tight and went to a nearby side-table. She opened the drawer and pulled out a sharp knife, holding it tight, as she looked outwards, angry yet determined look on

* * *

 

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Rapunzel followed Flynn through the roads in the forest, listening to him muttering to himself about the location of the destination he had in mind. He led the way, allowing Sora to walk near Rapunzel, Donald and Goofy following the two, and speak to her uninterrupted.

“So, Rapunzel,” Sora began, “Any reason you’re seeing the lanterns tomorrow? You said they’re on your birthday every year - why couldn’t you have gone before?”

Rapunzel looked at Sora’s curious face, and despite the kindness and friendship he had shown her earlier, she was still unsure about his trustworthiness. She began to speak only to be interrupted by Flynn.

“Ah, there it is!” He said, pointing to a sign next to him, “The Snuggly Duckling!”

Sora and Rapunzel caught up and read the sign, which consisted of a picture of a small duckling and the aforementioned name, The Snuggly Duckling. Donald and Goofy caught up shortly after. They all looked up from the sign to see a small, quaint cottage not too far ahead, sporting a sign hanging from the rooftop wit the same design as the sign right next to them.

“Don’t worry, very quaint place, perfect for you. Don’t want you scaring and giving up on this whole endeavour now do we?” Flynn asked Rapunzel, seeming overly helpful considering his actions just earlier.

“Well, I do like ducklings.” she responded.

“Yay!” exclaimed Flynn quietly, striding over to the nearby building with Rapunzel in tow, Sora Donald and Goofy following quickly should their help be necessary.

Flynn slammed opened the door, giant grin on his face, and any jovial activities inside died the moment he did so.

“Garçon, your finest table please!” he all but shouted, drawing the attention of everyone inside to himself.

Within the building, now confirmed as a pub by the layout of it, sat many men of varying sizes and ages - mostly large and burly with scars, missing teeth, or even the occasional missing limb. Thugs was the first word that came to mind at the sight of everyone inside the pub.

Flynn continued onward into the pub, unhindered, as Rapunzel held her frying pan out in a defensive position, unsure of where to point it. Sora, Donald, and Goofy meanwhile, prepared to summon their weapons if necessary while keeping the most cautious, yet callous, faces they could muster to prevent anybody messing with them.

As Rapunzel passed a rather large, burly thug, he looked at her hair in interest. Sora, Donald and Goofy kept their positions around Rapunzel, acting almost as bodyguards for the terrified young woman.

“That’s a lot of hair.” he said, voice as deep and gravelly as one would expect from a build such as his.

“She’s growing it out.” Flynn deadpanned immediately. He looked to Rapunzel’s face, full of fear, and continued while grabbing her shoulder, “You don’t look so good, Blondie. Maybe we should get you a home. Call it a day. Probably be better off. This is a five star joint after all, and if you can’t handle this place, well, maybe you should be back in your tower.”

A resounding SLAM came from the direction of the pub door, a consequence of it being shut forcefully by one of the patrons, poster under the hand still holding the door shut. Rapunzel gasped in reaction to the loud noise.

Keeping his hand on the poster, he inched closer to Flynn. The poster looked to be a drawing of Flynn, though the thug’s finger was covering the illustration’s nose.

“Is this you?” he asked Flynn, hoping to get a rise out of the man.

Flynn simply, and in a very nonchalant manner, nudged the thug’s finger from covering the nose of the portrait on the poster to reveal a rather comically long, almost impossibly inaccurate, nose an otherwise accurate rendition of himself.

“Oh, now they’re just being mean.” he muttered in annoyance.

“Oh, ho ho! It’s him alright!” proclaimed a thug with a hook for a hand, grabbing onto Flynn in the process, “Greno! Go find some guards! That reward’s gonna get me a new hook.” At this, the thug known as Greno ran out of the pub to find some guards.

A nearby thug grabbed Flynn from and yelled in protest to the hook-handed man, “I could use the money!”

“What about me? I’m broke!” challenged a third thug, also grabbing Flynn.

One by one each thug pushed and shoved one another to try to take down Flynn, all the while Flynn dodged each grasping hand as best he could and Rapunzel, Sora, Donald, and Goofy attempted to keep the peace.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Rapunzel took turns shouting variations of “Stop!”, “Leave him alone!”, and “Please!” until Rapunzel looked up, getting an idea. Sora, Donald, and Goofy still tried to make their way towards the center of the commotion to free Flynn.

Rapunzel lassoed her hair around a beam and pulled it down forcefully, causing it to fall directly onto the hook-handed thug’s head, which in turn caused the commotion to quiet down.

“Put him down!” she commanded.

The stillness of the pub could have been mistaken for a renaissance painting.

“Whoa! Okay. I don’t know where I am,” she continued, “and I need him to take me to see the lanterns because I’ve been dreaming about them my entire life! Find your humanity! Haven’t any of you ever had a dream?”

The hook handed man walked toward Rapunzel, his intentions unclear as she backed up in response to his approach. He stopped just in front of her, entire demeanor appearing to threaten her.

“I had a dream, once.” said the hook-handed man. He walked towards a piano on a stage within the pub, and continued, “See, I may be a malicious mean-tempered man whose sneer could curdle dairy and have some… not clean hands in the violence department. But despite my look, my temper, and my hook, little girl, I’ve always dreamed of being a concert pianist.” He finished, patting the grand piano longingly.

“Just like everybody else, I’ve got a dream.” the hook-handed man said.

“I’ve got scars, lumps, bruises and some weird thing here that oozes,” chimed in a rather large thug with a rather dense collection of scars and blemishes, “but you know, despite my extra toes, my goiter and my nose, I’ve… I’ve always wanted to make a love connection.” he finished, gazing wistfully towards the ceiling.

“Tor here would love to quit and be a florist.” said a thug, pointing to the aforementioned Tor, who was tending to some flowers in a vase.

“Gunther does interior design!” chimed another thug, presenting Gunther, a rather well-kept looking man, who had just finished adjusting a painting in a rather well-kept corner of the pub.

One after another the thugs shouted out one another’s dreams.

“Ulf is into mime!”

“Attila’s cupcakes are sublime!”

“Bruiser knits!”

“Killer sews!”

“Fang does puppet shows!”

“Vladimir collects ceramic unicorns!”

At this, Vladimir held two tiny ceramic unicorns while keeping a straight face, and gently nudged them together making them kiss quickly. His stoic face quickly broke into a small smile.

“What’s your dream spikey?” a thug asked Sora.

“My dream is to help the people who helped me!” he shouted happily, enjoying this change of pace with Rapunzel.

“I wanna see my girlfriend again!” shouted Donald, joining in on the joy.

“I wanna help my king no matter what!” said Goofy, determination set on his face.

“What about you?” the romantic thug asked Flynn.

“I’m sorry, me?” Flynn responded.

“What’s your dream?” the thug continued.

“No, no, no. Sorry boys. I don’t share.” Flynn said immediately, refusing to share his dreams.

At once multiple swords pointed towards Flynn, “encouraging” him to share with the crowd like everyone else.

“I’ve got dreams like you! Just... much less touchy-feely. They mainly happen somewhere warm and sunny,” Flynn began, detailing his dream to the crowd, “I’m on an island that I own - tanned, rested, alone - surrounded by enormous piles of money!”

“I’ve got a dream!” Rapunzel shouted, joyously.

“She’s got a dream!” the thugs repeated.

“I just want to see the floating lanterns gleam! And with every passing hour I’m so glad I left my Tower!” she continued, “Like all you lovely folks I have a dream!”

With that the pub burst into applause at Rapunzel’s heartfelt confession to her dream, only to be broken by a loud, violent banging on the door. Flynn pulled Rapunzel behind the counter as Sora, Donald and Goofy followed him to the hiding spot. As the door burst open, Grenos from earlier sauntered in.

“I found the guards!” he announced proudly.

The guards followed Grenos inside and began to interrogate the rest of the crowd as to Flynn’s whereabouts.

“Where’s Rider? Where is he?” interrogated one of the guards, presumably the captain from his authority and decorated uniform.

“I know he’s in here somewhere! Find him! Turn the place upside down if you have to!” he commanded his guards.

From underneath the bar, Flynn hazarded a look and caught sight of not only the guards, but two rather large, muscular, similar looking men in chains - the only difference between them being the eyepatch sported by one of them and sideburns sported by the other. He gasped in fear just as the hook handed man came behind the counter. He nonchalantly pulled on a lever, disguised as a tap, which opened a hidden passageway through the floor leading out of the bar.

“Go,” he said, “live your dreams.”

“I will.” answered Flynn.

“Your dream stinks. I was talking to them.” the hook-handed man said, as he pointed towards Rapunzel, Sora, Donald and Goofy.

Sora, Donald and Goofy took the lead, as Flynn followed hurriedly behind them. Rapunzel however, quickly gave the hook-handed man a peck on the cheek.

“Thanks for everything.” she said, and followed the other four down the tunnel, passage closing behind her.

As the five were escaping, the thug known as Vlad grabbed a rather short and scrawny old man and held him up to the captain.

“I believe this is the man you’re looking for!” he said unconvincingly, trying to buy the group some time to make their escape.

“You got me!” the scrawny man yelped, seemingly out of it and unobservant towards the situation.

“Sir,” called one of the guards to the captain, “there’s no sign of Rider.”

As he finished reporting, a loud neigh came from outside the pub. The door burst open once more as the neigh finished. This time though, it was the horse from the forest who proudly strutted in.

“Maximus.” said the captain, recognizing his lost horse. Maximus sniffed around the pub, catching onto scents in areas that Flynn was standing, until he stopped in front of the secret entrance to the hidden tunnel - which of course was now closed.

“What’s he doing?” asked one of the guards.

The captain shook his head as Maximus neighed, pushing down on the tap lever and opening the in-floor passageway.

“A passage!” exclaimed the captain, “C’mon men, let’s go! Conli,” he directed towards a guard, “make sure those boys don’t get away.”

With that, the captain and all but one of his team went down the passage. The remaining guard, Conli, pointed his weapon at the twins. The one with sideburns quickly headbutt Conli and he fell to the ground, unconscious. He grabbed Conli’s weapon and cut both his restraints and his brothers.

“Play it safe. We’ll get the crown.” He said, calmly.

* * *

Gothel stood outside the pub, hidden from view. She had passed by when she heard Rapunzel’s voice shout in joy, and came up to the window just in time to hear Rapunzel’s proclamation of “I’m so glad I left my tower!”

She looked around and noticed some guards in the distance making their way to the pub. She then immediately hid from the guards, though she kept her view on the group inside from a window. She saw Rapunzel, the man on the wanted poster Flynn Rider, a young boy, and two… non-human creatures go through the hidden passage that one of the thugs opened up for them.

Gothel waited patiently for the commotion with the guards to end, watching them search for Flynn and follow the horse into the passage, when she noticed a small, older thug making his way towards the door.

She headed to the door just as the short and most likely some kind of inebriated old man came out of the pub, mumbling about sweet dreams when he took a look at Rapunzel’s mother.

“Ooooh, somebody get me a glass, ‘cuz I just found me a tall drink of water!” he exclaimed, looking her up and down.

“Oh, stop it ya big lug!” she began, in a seemingly jovial and inoffensive manner, before threatening him with the knife, “Where’s that tunnel lead out?”

“Knife!” the old man intelligently replied at the shock of seeing the knife right against his nose.

* * *

“Well, I gotta say,” began Flynn, grabbing a torch from the wall to help light the way, “didn’t know you had that in you back there. That was pretty impressive.”

“Yeah Rapunzel, you managed to keep everyone from hurting anyone!” Sora exclaimed in joy.

“Almost like a princess, Rapunzel. Our Queen Minnie does things like that too, a-hyuck.” said Goofy, “She doesn’t like seeing others get hurt, so she tries her best to make sure nobody does.”

“Oh stop it,” Rapunzel began, “I’m no princess. Just an awesome person!”

She struck a pose, frying pan in hand and Pascal on her shoulder, causing Sora, Donald and Goofy to laugh heartily while Flynn chuckled at her antics.

“So, where’s everyone from?” Rapunzel asked as the laughter died down. “Sora?” she motioned for him to answer first.

Sora pondered a bit before answering, trying to find a satisfactory way to explain without talking about other worlds.

“I’m from some far off islands.” He began, “My best friends and I made a raft to see the world, but we got separated by a storm. I spent years trying to find them again, and I did! But now I have to help other friends who helped me when I didn’t even know it.”

“Sounds like you’re quite the sap, Spikey.” said Flynn.

“Yeah, guess I am.” Sora responded with a smile.

“Donald, Goofy?” Rapunzel continued.

“Gawrsh, Rapunzel, we’re from uh, another kingdom!” began Goofy.

“Yup! And we uh, ran into Sora when we were looking for our missing king!” continued Donald.

“So we teamed up to help each other, because three heads are better than two!” finished Goofy.

“Yeah,” said Sora, “all three of us are sappy half-pints in some way. We’re just a regular pint and a half of goofs.”

Rapunzel smiled at their heartwarming stories and eyed Flynn, who was walking ahead and keeping silent.

“What about you Flynn? Where are you from?” she finally asked.

“Sorry Blondie, I don’t do back-story.” He said offhandedly, dodging Rapunzel’s question. “However, I am becoming very interested in yours. Now I, I know I’m not supposed to mention the hair.”

“Nope.” Rapunzel responded.

“Or the mother.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Frankly, I’m scared to ask about the frog.”

“Chameleon.” she corrected.

“Nuance.” Flynn brushed it off, “Here’s my question: if you wanna see the lanterns so badly, why haven’t you gone before?”

Rapunzel quieted and slowed her pace, thinking to herself.

“I wanna know that too, if you don’t mind.” said Sora. He then looked to Flynn and said “I tried asking her earlier, but you found the Snuggly Duckling before she could answer.”

“She’s pondering, so maybe we’ll get an answer now?” Flynn said.

“But,” Sora added, and looked to Rapunzel, “only if you want to share it thou-”

“Rider!” came from a ways behind the group.

“RUN!” yelled Flynn, picking up the pace as everyone else followed suit.

The group screeched to a halt as the hidden passage opened up at the edge of a cliff, to their right a dam and to their left and ahead a rather long fall. Looking down, they caught sight of two rather large thugs bursting through wooden planks, the brothers from the pub. The one with sideburns spotted the group and caught the other’s attention, motioning to look up. They both grinned maliciously.

“Who’s that?” Sora asked Flynn.

“They don’t like me.” He answered.

Just as he finished answering, the roar of footsteps came from behind the group, causing them all to turn around as the captain and his guards appeared from the tunnel.

“Who’s that?” Rapunzel asked this time.

“They don’t like me either.” Flynn answered, stepping back carefully to put some distance between himself and the guards.

From the tunnel, galloped out Maximus, the guard’s horse, who neighed loudly in Flynn’s direction.

“Who’s THAT?” chorused Rapunzel and Sora - Rapunzel in confusion and Sora in disbelief.

“Let’s just assume for the moment that everyone here doesn’t like me!” Flynn yelped in frustration.

Sora, Donald and Goofy summoned their weapons just as Rapunzel handed her frying pan to Flynn with a decisive, curt “Here.”

She grabbed her hair and lassoed it to a wooden beam higher up along the dam, and swung towards another outcropping a ways away from the tunnel exit.

As she swung, the captain laughed maliciously.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this.” he said, looking at Flynn, a glint in his eyes. At this, dark pools of inky, murky darkness opened up as shadowy creatures appeared as well. Dark bug-like shadows and flower-like monsters appeared alongside the guards.

“Who’s that?” Flynn questioned, looking towards the Trinity Trio.

“They don’t like us.” Sora said,

At that, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Flynn all took defensive stances with their respective weapons. Flynn looked at his companions and took note of all their weapons.

“Giant key, wooden stick, round shield, and a frying pan. We’re done for.” he said, looking ahead at all the swords, claws, and petals pointed in their direction.


	6. Gleaming Locks of What?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 7 was an incredible pain to write despite hence why this one was so late (and stuff happened in life that I had to prioritize as well - I may be writing fanfic but I'm an adult and do have to do adult things when necessary). But this story is still going!

* * *

At once, the guards, the captain, the heartless and the horse rushed towards Sora, Donald, Goofy and Flynn.

 

Sword versus shield.

Claw versus staff.

Petal versus giant key.

Sword versus… frying pan.

 

All in all, with the odd assortment of weapons, all but three of the fighters in the brawl expected the guards and the odd dark creatures surrounding them to win. But they should have, as the saying goes, expected the unexpected.

A few strong swings of the keyblade, aided by some throws of a shield and some swings of a staff, brought a good number of guards down to unconsciousness and dealt a great amount of damage to the Shadows and Flower Heartless. The rest of the guards were taken out by a good ol’ frying pan to the head.

“Oh mama, I have GOT to get me one of these!” Flynn said as he clobbered the last guard. He looked over to see Sora extinguishing the last of the shadowy creatures that appeared alongside the guards. Sora looked towards Flynn and smiled brightly, giving him a thumbs up.

At that, a sword came towards Flynn, which he successfully parried quickly with the frying pan. He actually looked to see the owner to find… Maximus? The horse held the sword in his teeth, and lunged again at Flynn who parried again with the frying pan.

“You should know that this is the strangest thing I’ve ever done!” he yelled out, unsure whether he was speaking to Maximus or Sora. As Maximus and Flynn kept fighting, one by one, Sora, Donald and Goofy were grabbed by Rapunzel as she swung back and forth to get them out of danger.

With one more blow from the sword, Maximus knocked the frying pan clean out of Flynn’s hand.

“How ‘bout two out of three?!” he said, unsure if the horse even understood him.

From her perch, Rapunzel once again whipped her hair towards Flynn, yelling his name to catch his attention. Her hair wrapped perfectly around Flynn’s hand and she pulled him from Maximus, a look of astonishment on Flynn’s face at the entire debacle.

During his swing, he got closer and closer to the brothers below, who attempted to grab onto him. Not only did they miss, lightning bolts came from nowhere and hit the two brothers, causing them to fall to the ground. Flynn looked up and saw Donald and Sora pointing their weapons at the brothers.

Flynn’s swing kept momentum and he began laughing, just laughing and laughing in disbelief at the close call and the magic until

 

WHAM!

 

His swing was suddenly stopped by a plank in the way of his swing. He kept a hold of Rapunzel’s hair as he climbed onto a wooden irrigation system. From above another resounding SLAM was heard. Rapunzel, Sora, Donald and Goofy turned around to see Maximus had bucked and dislodged a wooden plank from the dam and began trotting menacingly towards the group, which had caused a mid-sized yet very forceful stream of water to begin flowing from the plank’s previous lodging.

At once, Sora, Donald, and Goofy immediately jumped down from their position to Flynn’s, while Rapunzel ran towards the edge and paused, unsure.

“C’mon Blondie - Jump!” yelled Flynn.

“You’ll be okay!” yelled Sora, attempting to help quell her fear.

She took a deep breath and jumped down, holding onto her hair as Flynn held onto the other from his end. Her hair was just long enough for a portion to fly back from the momentum of her jump, close enough for Maximus to grab onto. He made an attempt to bite at the hair but was too slow - he ended up biting nothing but air as Rapunzel swung her way down towards the group below.

She ended up landing onto a puddle of water underneath them, and kept sliding down the slope. From atop the open irrigation pipe, the others followed her lead and slid down the path as well.

Rapunzel kept running as the rest of the group jumped from pillar to pillar to catch up to her, and as they all jumped down to her level, loud, booming, echoing cracks could be heard throughout the canyon, until something close to an explosion was heard. The dam had broken and the water it held came rushing forth, chasing Rapunzel, Flynn, Donald, Goofy and Sora.

As they ran and ran and ran towards the other edge of the canyon, the force of the rushing water knocked over an extremely tall and only partially stable rock formation. As it made its way down, its shadow crept closer and closer towards the group. One by one, they slowly made it into an opening in the canyon, partially blocked off by wooden planks. Rapunzel ran in first, followed by Donald, Goofy, Sora, and then Flynn - the second he ran in the pillar collapsed onto the opening, trapping the five inside. The cave was just large enough for everybody, but unfortunately, the seal from the pillar wasn’t watertight.

Water rushed in as the quintet panicked, and tried to climb up higher, only to come up to a roof.

As it rushed and rushed, Sora and Donald looked at one another and nodded.

“Stop!” “Stopra!” the two cast in unison - the rushing water was too fast to be fully stopped but it sowed just enough for everyone to catch their breaths for a moment. With the water at their knees and slowly rising, Flynn took a breath and went under to look for an opening. He resurfaced with the frying pan, which had somehow gotten caught in the water and made it inside the cave before its blockage.

“Oh baby, am I glad to see you.” He said, giving the frying pan a quick kiss. Noticing the stares of disbelief in his direction, Flynn immediately continued diving down.

Again.

And again.

And again.

He resurfaced as the water reached his upper thighs.

“It’s no use. I can’t see anything.” He said, attempting to dive once more.

As he did so, he noticed intermittent flashes of light nearby. He resurfaced to see Sora summoning and banishing his weapon to attempt to help illuminate the dark.

“Thanks, Spikey.” He said quickly, and returned to his search. The water at this point had begun to speed up, the spells from earlier beginning to wear off.

Despite the multiple dives and glows, there still was not enough light to see below the surface of the water. He resurfaced one last time, gasping in pain, as the water continued to rise. He brought his left hand above the surface to inspect it. It was bleeding from a cut he must have gotten while searching the water during his last dive.

At this point Rapunzel decided to try her luck and began to dive down, but Sora and Flynn pulled her back up just as she disappeared under the surface.

“There’s no point.” Flynn began, “It’s pitch black down there.”

“And my keyblade only glows for a second - not long enough to see anything right.” Sora piped up.

The water was already up to everyone’s stomachs, and everyone stood on rocks to be as high up from the water as possible. The flow did slow but it was still fast enough to cause worry.

Rapunzel looked to everyone - Flynn, Sora, Donald, Goofy - and broke down. Tears began to flow from her eyes as low sobs and gasps came from the young woman.

“This is all my fault. She was right, I never should’ve done this. I’m…” she let herself sniffle before continuing, “I’m sorry, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Flynn.”

“Eugene.” Flynn said, before anyone else could say anything to console Rapunzel.

“What?” she said, as Sora, Donald and Goofy let out a “Huh?”

“My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert.” He said, and let out a sigh, “Someone might as well know.”

“We’re from other worlds,” Sora said sadly, as the water just reached their chests, "Since we're all tellin' the truth."

Rapunzel let out a sad laugh, before looking to the others.

“I have magic hair that glows when I sing.” she revealed, chuckling sadly once more at the situation. Her eyes widened at her realization.

The others stared at Rapunzel’s revelation, eyes as wide as hers, as she finished processing what she just said.

“I have… magic hair that glows when I sing!!” she exclaimed. The water was now at their necks and everyone was floating upwards to get as much remaining air as possible. As quickly as she could, Rapunzel took a deep breath and sung a melody, lyrics nearly indiscernible at her quick pace.

“ _Flowergleamandglow letyourpowershine -”_ was all she could get out before the entire cave finally filled with water.

But it was enough. Her hair glowed as bright as any light, and lasted long enough for everyone to get a good view of the cave they were submerged in. Eugene let out a gasp but quickly covered his mouth before he could inhale water.

Rapunzel’s hair seemed to be following a current, which Eugene and Sora swam to. They noticed that it was being drawn towards a pile of rocks. They looked at one another and nodded, and began pulling at the pile, dislodging rocks left and right, until they created an opening large enough for them to swim through. They followed the current, to wherever it may lead, as quickly as possible to escape the cave.

* * *

From a stream in the forest, five figures broke the surface, coughing and gasping for air.

“We made it!” Sora exclaimed, pulling himself from the stream with Donald and Goofy.

“Her hair glows.” Eugene said in disbelief, still in the stream holding onto the grass and running his other hand through his hair.

“I’m alive! I’m alive!” Rapunzel shouted, running out of the stream.

“I didn’t see that coming.” Eugene said to himself, looking at Pascal who was drying his tail.

“Eugene.” called Rapunzel, unheard by Eugene who was still marveling at her hair.

“Her hair actually glows.” He said to Pascal, the chameleon staring at Eugene in disinterest.

“Eugene.” she called again, and once again was ignored by Eugene.

“Why does her hair glow?” he asked Pascal, as if the chameleon could answer his question.

“Eugene!” Rapunzel and Sora shouted together, finally grabbing his attention.

“What?” Eugene finally answered, looking to Sora and Rapunzel.

“It doesn’t _just_ glow.” she said cryptically, smile on her face.

Sora helped Eugene up as he, Donald and Goofy chuckled at his reaction.

“What’re you laughin’ at?” he said to Donald and Goofy.

“It’s just kinda funny,” Sora began, “All the magic that me ‘n’ Donald did and it’s glowing hair that gets you like this.”

“Have you seen glowing hair, Mr. Magician?” Eugene retorted.

“Can’t say I have.” Sora answered truthfully.

“Hey!” Rapunzel called from nearby a large tree, “We can set up a camp here! It’s getting dark.”

“Let’s go Eugene.” Sora said, and quickly made his way to Rapunzel.

As Eugene made it to the tree, Sora had just finished summoning his keyblade and pointed it at a bundle of thick sticks surrounded by rocks.

“Fire!” he shouted, as a rush of flames erupted from the tip of his keyblade, igniting the sticks. The resulting campfire crackled and glowed, lighting the ever darkening sky. Eugene took a seat on one of the tree’s roots, back against the trunk, and saw that Donald and Goofy had already taken seats on another nearby root. Sora sat next to the two as Rapunzel came towards Eugene.

* * *

Elsewhere in the forest, a wooden door hidden in a tree adorned with a duckling burst open as the two large, muscular brothers

“I’ll kill ‘im! I’ll kill that Ryder!” the one with sideburns yelled out of rage as his silent, eyepatch-wearing brother climbed his way out of the tree onto the grass.

“We’ll cut him off at the kingdom and get back the crown.” he instructed, and motioned for his brother to follow, “C’mon.”

Shortly after walking a few paces, a woman’s voice cut through the air.

“Boys!” she called, getting the brothers’ attention. They turned towards the sound of the voice to see Rapunzel’s mother standing atop a rather large, mossy boulder, hiding something behind her back.

“Perhaps you want to stop acting like wild dogs chasing their tails and think for a moment.” she said to them, holding out the satchel so that they could see it.

Immediately the brothers drew their swords, ready to fight for the treasure inside.

“Oh-ho, please, there’s no need for that.” she said, and tossed the satchel towards the brothers. The one with sideburns grabbed it, as the one with the eyepatch grabbed for it to get a look; sideburns easily fought off his brother’s attempts and immediately dug inside, finding the coveted crown.

“Well,” Rapunzel’s mother began again, “if that’s all that you desire then be on your way. I was going to offer you something worth one thousand crowns, would have made you rich beyond belief and that wasn’t even the best part.” she chuckled, “Oh well, c’est la vie. Enjoy your crown.”

With that she turned to walk away but before she could take even a step, the sideburned brother spoke up.

“What’s the best part?” he asked.

Gothel turned around, and grinned menacingly, “It comes with revenge on Flynn Rider.”

The brothers looked at one another and smiled, teeth bared creating a menacing grin.

* * *

In the dark of fresh night, just after dusk had waned, Sora, Donald and Goofy watched as Rapunzel slowly and quietly wrapped the ends of her hair around Eugene’s injured hand, careful not to aggravate it in the process.

“So, you’re being strangely cryptic as you wrap your magic hair around my injured hand.” He said, unsure of what’s to come. Rapunzel continued to wrap her hair around, and Eugene let out a yelp of pain.

“Sorry! Just…”

Rapunzel looked to Eugene, then towards Sora, Donald and Goofy, and back to Eugene again, “...don’t freak out? Please? Any of you?”

Eugene merely nodded as Sora, Donald and Goofy let out a stream of reassurances.

“Of course not!” “I never freak out!” “Gawrsh, Rapunzel, we’re here for ya.”

Rapunzel sighed deeply and took a short breath. Just as in the waterlogged cave, she began to sing a melody - the exact same one in fact.

 

“ _Flower, gleam and glow,_  
_Let your power shine,_  
_Make the clock reverse,_ _  
_ Bring back what once was mine…”

 

As she sang, her hair began to glow - starting from her roots and traveling the extraordinarily long distance to her ends. Sora, Donald, and Goofy scooted closer to get a better look at this magical display. At the same time, Pascal grabbed Eugene’s attention and pointed towards his hand, instructing Eugene to pay attention. _  
_

Rapunzel continued the song as everybody watched in awe.

  
_“Heal what has been hurt,_  
_Change the fate’s design,_  
_Save what has been lost,_  
_Bring back what once was mine,_ _  
_ What once was mine…”

 

As she finished the song, the glow from her hair faded away, leaving her still bright blonde hair looking substantially less magical, length notwithstanding. Curiosity getting the better of them, Sora crept closer to Eugene as Donald and Goofy inspected some of Rapunzel’s hair.

Eugene unwrapped Rapunzel’s hair from his hand just as Sora sat down next to him to witness the results. Sora’s and Eugene’s eyes widened at the sight of the now uninjured hand. Eugene stared at his hand, turning it to inspect the palm and the back of it, and turning to view the palm once more. His breathing became heavy as his inspection ended, and he took a deep breath, prepare to let out a scream when

“Please don’t freak out!” Rapunzel quickly got out, interrupting and silencing the scream from Eugene’s throat, though he was still vocalizing as if attempting to get words out.

“It’s like a musical Curaga spell...” Sora muttered to himself, engrossed at the magical qualities that Rapunzel’s hair possessed.

“Aaaaahh-I’m-not-freaking-out-are-you-freaking-out-no-I’m-just-very-interested-in-your-hair-and-the-magical-qualities-that-it-possesses-how-long-has-it-been-doing-that-exactly?” Eugene managed to get out in one breath, his freakout very apparent despite his attempt to quell the emotions for Rapunzel’s sake.

“Uh… Forever, I guess.” Rapunzel answered, and looked around to see Eugene, Sora, Donald and Goofy sitting around her, as if anticipating a story.

“Mother says when I was a baby, people tried to cut it - they wanted to take it for themselves. But, once it’s cut, it turns brown and loses its power.” At this, Rapunzel lifted her hair from the back of her neck and revealed a neck-length lock of healthy brown hair, vastly different from the long golden locks elsewhere.

“A gift like that,” she continued, “it has to be protected. That’s why mother never let me…”

Rapunzel sighed sadly, looking to her new friends around her.

“That’s why I never left the…” She trailed off, unable to complete her sentence.

“You..” Sora began, unsure of how to continue this sensitive topic.

“You never left that tower, did you?” Eugene asked, “And you’re still gonna go back?”

“No!” Rapunzel answered immediately, “Yes? Ugh, it’s all so complicated.”

She ran her fingers through her hair and looked down, unsure of what her course of action would be.

Sora looked around the camp and laid his eyes on Donald and Goofy. He pursed his lips, widened his eyes and pointed his head towards Rapunzel. Goofy looked puzzled at Sora’s motions while Donald’s eyes widened and he immediately shook his head no, but Sora was having none of that.

He sat down next to Rapunzel and looked up at the sky.

“Guess it’s truth time.” Sora began. “I’m not from here.”

“Gee, talking duck and dog and you’re not from Corona, hard to imagine.” Eugene snarked with a smirk, lightening the mood a bit.

Sora grinned at Eugene and continued his story. “Y’see all those stars out there?”

Sora pointed towards the night sky, and Rapunzel and Eugene looked up.

“Every single one is another world - Me ‘n’ Donald ‘n’ Goofy are from out there, and we’re saving them all from dark creatures called Heartless - they were the things that showed up with the guards. We actually ran into a few before we met you.” Sora finished, looking over to Rapunzel and Eugene.

“Wow.” Rapunzel said, “Everything’s so much larger than I thought!” A smile began creeping on her face, as she looked towards Eugene.

“So,” she began, “Eugene Fitzherbert, huh?”

Eugene paled and sighed deeply, accepting his fate.

“Since it is storytime, I guess.” He began, “I’ll spare you the sob story of poor orphan Eugene Fitzherbert, it’s a little bit of a… that’s a little bit of a downer.”

Rapunzel scooted closer to Eugene, and Sora relocated his seat so that he sat in front of the two, like a kid waiting for a tale of grand adventure.

Eugene looked from one to another and let out a “Huh.” intrigued by their intrigue.

“Well,” he said, “There was this book, a book I used to read every night to all the younger kids – ‘The Tales of Flynnigan Rider’.” He stretched one arm out and slowly waved his hand in an arc across the air to emphasize the title of the book. “Swashbuckling rogue, richest man alive, not bad with the ladies, either. Not that he would be one to brag about it, of course.”

“Hmm. Was he a thief too?” Rapunzel interrupted.

“Uh… well, no.” Eugene continued, sadly,  “Actually, he had enough money to do anything that he wanted to do. He could go anywhere that he wanted to go. And, and, and for a kid with nothing, I don’t know, I… It just seemed like a better option.” He looked towards Rapunzel and Sora, who had frowns on their faces.

“Look, you can’t tell _anyone_ about this, okay?” Eugene pleaded, “It’d ruin my whole reputation.”

Rapunzel held back a laugh, instead releasing a chuckle. “We wouldn’t want that.” She said through the laughs.

“Well, a fake reputation is all a man has!” Eugene said as he stood up, false bravado apparent in his pose - standing tall, hands on his hips, feet apart.

The result of this came in the form of laughter from all in the group, Rapunzel’s chuckles, Goofy's guffaws, Sora’s snickers and Donald’s chortles filled the air, helping to lighten the mood even more than Eugene had even anticipated, causing him to join in on the merriment as well.

Heavy pants were the result from the unbridled laughter, the good time infecting the group with smiles that threatened to never leave. Sora looked to the fire and noticed it was still strong, but there was no more fuel for it should it weaken.

“Firewood’s getting a little low.” Sora said aloud to the group. Eugene looked to the fire, nodded, and got up from his seat.

“I’ll go get some more firewood then.” he volunteered, grabbing the frying pan for protection.

“I’ll go with you,” Sora said, “in case the Heartless show up. I can help fight them.”

“Good idea Spikey, safety in numbers and all that.” Eugene said, motioning for him to follow.

Rapunzel stood up and called the duo with a “Hey.”

“For the record,” she began, “I like Eugene Fitzherbert much better than Flynn Rider.”

She sat back down quickly as Eugene responded.

“Well then, you’d be the first. But thank you.”

The duo parted their ways from the remaining trio, Donald and Goofy staying behind to keep Rapunzel safe. As soon as Eugene and Sora were out of sight, two bottles of liquid were thrown towards Donald and Goofy, instantly putting them to sleep. Rapunzel stood on guard until a very familiar voice spoke through the darkness.

“Well, I’d thought they’d never leave!” came Gothel’s voice, full of exasperation and impatience.

“Mother!” Rapunzel said, gasping as she realized just who was in front of her.

“Hello dear.” Gothel responded.

“But… I-I-I.. I don’’t…” Rapunzel stuttered, “How did you find me?”

* * *

A ways down in the forest, Sora and Eugene scoured the ground for dry sticks and branches to use as firewood. They split up to cover more ground, but kept close enough that they could see one another under the moon’s dim glow.

Sora looked at his collection of branches and sticks at the base of a tree, then looked back up in the direction he last saw Eugene. The older man had a paltry collection compared to Sora’s and kept wandering around searching for more timber.

“Eugene!” Sora called, waving one arm in the air to catch the man’s attention.

Eugene looked up from his current work, bent down and in the middle of picking up another branch.

“Yeah, Spikey?” he answered, picking up the branch in the process.

“I’ve got a lot of branches by this tree,” Sora said as he pointed to the aforementioned tree, “I’m gonna get some water from the stream.”

“Gotcha!” Eugene said, continuing to find more firewood.

Once he was sure that Eugene both knew which specific tree and had continued his search, Sora went to the nearby stream, just out of Eugene’s eyesight, and plopped himself down.

He took a deep breath and sighed heavily, taking a quick rest from the very adventurous day. He scooted towards the stream with the intent to cup some water in his hands and take a nice long drink, but suddenly stopped. He yelped at the sight of his reflection - jet black hair, dark knowing smirk, and intense yellow eyes -  and scooted back, accidentally kicking dirt into the water. He took a few deep breaths before crawling towards the stream again. Warily, he leaned over the water to see his own face - same brown hair, same blue eyes.

“Must be more tired than I thought, heh.” he said to himself, shaking his head. He then cupped his hands and pooled some water in them, and began drinking heartily. He heard footsteps approaching in the middle of his third handful, and finished quickly.

“Finished up Eugene?” he called, still looking down. He stood and turned towards the footsteps as he continued, “Lemme grab my bundle and we can-” he cut himself off.

The footsteps weren’t Eugene’s. The person standing before him wore a long, dark robe, face hidden by a hood - visible only due to the moon’s light.

Sora jumped back in preparation for a battle and summoned his keyblade, the flash of the summoning briefly lighting the area before darkening once again.

“What are you doing here?!” Sora yelled, poised to attack should the situation arise.

“Relax, kiddo,” the figure said, hands in front of him in an “I mean peace” gesture, “Jus’ talkin’ today, no fights. Cross my heart,” he chuckled before continuing, “hope to cry, stick a keyblade in my eye.” At that he removed his hood, revealing his eyepatch and scarred face to Sora.

“It’s jus’ me, lil’ ol’ Braig.” Braig said, smirking as Sora cautiously dismissed his keyblade.

Sora kept his hands clenched into fists, glaring at Braig and repeated his question. “What. Are. You doing here?”

Braig took a few carefree steps towards Sora, who kept himself braced for battle.

“Like I said, I’m jus’ here to talk. Old Master Xehanort’s sent me on a special mission y’see.” Braig began, finally reaching Sora and placing an arm around the younger boy’s uncomfortably squirming shoulders. “He ain’t too happy that you got away scot-free an’ all, y’know?”

Braig poked Sora’s chest rather harshly at that. Sora wormed his way out of Braig’s grasp, and placed his hand over his heart.

“Well you can tell him I’m glad I got away!” Sora said and looked down towards his chest, “My heart belongs to me, and nobody else.”

Braig laughed wildly at Sora’s response, slapping his knees and taking deep breaths in between.

“Oh man, that’s… that’s priceless kiddo! You should do stand-up!” he said, “Because I know some people who’d beg to differ. Don’t you think so, _Roxas?_ ”

At that, Sora felt a rage that wasn’t his course through his veins. As soon as he felt that flare up Oathkeeper and Oblivion were in his hands before he could even register they were summoned. Braig took a few steps back, arms up in front of his chest with palms facing outwards.

“Now now, let’s talk it out like _adults_ , eh kiddos?” he said, “I jus’ got a message to deliver an’ I’m outta here.”

“What is it then?” Sora’s mouth moved of its own accord, voice angrier than what usually comes out of the mouth. The twin keyblades were also dismissed faster than Sora could process.

“Well, Roxas, Sora,” Braig said, smirking and crossing his arms, “Ol’ Master wanted me to tell ya that he ain’t happy, blah, blah, blah, and oh right! That this ain’t over, and if ya keep diggin’ around your heart, you’ll jus’ be back in our arms.”

He turned around and took a few steps away from Sora, before pausing in place.

Sora just glared at the man, both his and Roxas’ anger outwardly showing on Sora’s face through his furrowed brows and squinted eyes.

“Oh an’ before I leave,” he began, turning his head to look at Sora, “I saw you lookin’ at your reflection earlier.”

“Yeah, so?” Sora retorted, not in the mood to deal with the Organization’s games.

“You might wanna keep an eye on that Heart of yours. Make sure the box’s contents match the label an’ all.” Braig finished, opening a dark portal in front of himself. He walked through, waving goodbye nonchalantly along the way, until the portal closed.

‘ _Let’s go, Sora. Eugene might be worried.’_ Roxas said, attempting to get Sora away from the compromised location.

Sora marched off, breathing deeply to let go of his uncharacteristically deep anger. He went towards the tree where he left the firewood, but stopped abruptly in the middle of the forest.

He suddenly felt lighter, calmer, as if his anger was just whisked away by an unknown source.

‘What?’ he thought to Roxas.

Anger dissipating into confusion, Roxas somehow gave the impression of shrugging from within Sora’s heart.

‘I mean I’m not complaining,’ Sora continued, ‘but this can’t be good.’

‘ _Yeah.’_ Roxas agreed. Sora felt Roxas drifting down and away, back into the haven of Sora’s heart.

Now alone in his head, Sora looked around his surroundings to make sure that he was safe, and seemingly so, he took a step forward before seeing a bush rustle on his 2'o clock.

He cautiously headed towards the rustling, in case it was a Heartless, but kept the keyblade dismissed. As he got closer, the rustling grew more and more intense - shaking leaves and branches off of the poor shrub. Just as Sora stopped and knelt down, the rustling stopped.

And an energetic blob of dark purple jumped from the bush, twitching not unlike a Heartless, as it climbed all around Sora’s body. Sora jumped back as he watched the unknown red-eyed creature, all sleek angles with a pointed head and two sharp antennae, jump off of him and stare blankly at Sora.

Seeing as the creature didn’t attack him, Sora looked around, but saw no other form of life. He knelt down once more and stuck his arm out to pet the creature…

 

...but it flinched, as if expecting to be hit instead. Sora pulled back his arm, holding it close to him to show the creature he meant no harm.

‘Must be some of the wildlife, I guess…’ Sora thought, unsure of his conclusion, but had no evidence to point to anything else, ‘Better leave it alone and head back to grab the firewood and find Eugene.’

At the thought, the creature flattened itself into the ground very much like a shadow heartless, and whizzed away from Sora.

 

Towards the firewood.

 

Where Eugene was.

 

Without thinking, Sora ran as quickly as he could, hoping to make it before anything happened.

He stopped as he came across Eugene, mouth wide open, eyes wide in surprise, firewood dropped at his feet and pointing ahead. Sora looked to find the creature from earlier, trying to carry some of Sora’s stash of firewood.

Sora stopped thinking, and his body moved of its own accord towards the creature. He knelt down and picked it up, holding it at arms length as he stood back up.

He kept his back towards Eugene, and called out, in an oddly deeper voice, “Don’t mention this to the others. This thing is a dangerous nuisance but can’t be left alone.”

Eugene just nodded and let out a weak, “Uh-huh.”

Sora then held out the creature in front of him with one hand, an in an instant, a keyblade was summoned, the creature was disposed of, and the keyblade was dismissed once again - too quickly for Eugene to process any details.

Sora’s stature suddenly slacked and he turned back towards Eugene.

“Guess we should uh, head back huh?” Sora asked, unsure of what just happened, as he stared down towards his hands.

A weak “Uh-huh.” was all Eugene could manage as he began picking up his share of the firewood.

Sora followed Eugene’s lead and picked up his own share and they trekked silently back to the camp.


	7. Dancing With the Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can give a whole list of excuses but I won't. I will update as often as I can, though working a near full-time job can make that a little difficult. I will promise to try though. And fun fact - the next chapter is the longest one so far, so look forward to that once I finish writing Nine!

* * *

 

“So, do ya think I’m gonna get some super strength in my hand?” Eugene asked Sora, breaking the silence that suffocated their trip back to camp.

“Um,” Sora began, as he shifted his batch of firewood to get a better grip, “Maybe that’s something you should ask Rapunzel.”

He continued staring ahead, deep in thought at the series of events from just earlier.

“Because,” Eugene started up again, trying to get the boy talking, “that would be really stupendous.”

“Yeah, would be.” Sora answered, once more ending a conversation before it even began.

The glow of a fire ahead of them caught their attention, and the two errand boys quickened their pace to make it to the camp.

“We’re back!” Eugene proudly called out as Sora quietly placed his stash of firewood on the ground and headed towards a sleeping Donald and Goofy.

He added his firewood to the pile and noticed a fidgeting Rapunzel rocking  on a large root, so lost in thought she hadn’t heard his declaration from earlier.

“We’re back!” he said again, causing Rapunzel to gasp at Eugene’s sudden presence.

“So, Blondie, is there any chance I’m gonna get super strength in this hand? Because let’s be honest that’d be amazing!” Eugene decided to ask her.

Laying on a high root against the tree trunk, Sora paid no mind to the conversation held by Eugene and Rapunzel just yards away from him. Instead, he looked towards the sleeping forms of his friends, watching them breathe evenly and peacefully.

He slumped his posture even more against the trunk, as if willing the tree to absorb him. He looked to the night sky and his gaze unfocused as he tried to call Roxas for an in-depth, internal conversation.

‘Roxas, you there?’ Sora called, waiting to feel a surge from his heart. Receiving no answer, Sora tried calling him again and again, but got no response each time. He grew slightly worried, but hoped that the Nobody was just asleep in his heart.

He thought back to the creature, and how similar it was to a Heartless but also how different it was. It didn’t try to hurt him, on the contrary, it thought _he_ would hurt it. Most confusing of all though, was how it seemed to read his mind and follow his order.

He didn’t want to consider the option, but maybe Braig was right about there being more in his heart than just Roxas. Which is why he kept calling for his Nobody, who seems to have pulled a disappearing act. He felt his hands ball into fists, not tight enough to be clenched, but enough that he noticed his own annoyance manifesting physically. He looked to his hands and in the moonlight thought he saw a faint dark glow around them.

He gasped loudly and shook his hands wildly, sliding off of his perch and landing with a loud thump. His fall woke both his companions with a start and caught the attention of Eugene and Rapunzel from their root. Donald and Goofy immediately summoned their weapons, heavily disoriented from their rude awakening.

“You alright there, Spikey?” Eugene called, looking over to where Sora fell. Rapunzel seemed to be holding in a soft laughter as Donald and Goofy dismissed their weapons, gaining cognizance of the situation at hand.

“Yeah! I’m fine!” Sora called back, as he picked himself up and dusted himself off, “Musta dozed off and fell is all!”

He shot Eugene and Rapunzel a beaming smile as Donald whacked him alongside the head.

“What was that for?!” Sora asked, rubbing the back of his head.

“Goofy an’ I were havin’ ourselves a nice nap, and ya had ta ruin it!” Donald yelled, jumping to reach Sora’s eye level due to his short stature.

“Garwsh Donald, I don’ even remember fallin’ asleep.” Goofy added, trying to remember just what happened after Sora and Eugene left to fetch firewood.

“See?” Donald said, using Goofy’s observation as evidence, “We musta been _real tired_ if we don’t remember fallin’ asleep!”

Rapunzel couldn’t hold her laughter anymore and burst out, holding her stomach for support.

“I am so,” she said, in between breaths, “SO glad,” she continued, letting out a chuckle before finishing, “that you three came along!”

She composed herself and grabbed Eugene’s arm, nudging him to follow her as she walked towards Sora, Donald and Goofy.

“Thank you.” She said, smile beaming on her face at the shenanigans the three have gotten into.

“And thank you too, Eugene.” She said as she turned towards Eugene, who housed a small, content smile upon his face.

“Well,” Eugene began, “since we seem to be about done with things to do and say tonight, let’s all hit the hay.”

“Should someone keep watch?” Sora asked, concerned about a potential Heartless attack.

“I managed to catch a glimpse of a road and landmark not too far from us - we’re within a half-day’s walk from Corona’s Walls. Should be safe enough out here for everyone to get a good night’s sleep.” Eugene said, pointing behind him in the general direction of Corona.

“If you’re sure.” Sora said, unconvinced. He let Eugene and Rapunzel find spots to sleep and turned to Donald and Goofy. “I’ll take first watch, alright?”

“Ya sure, Sora?” Goofy asked, “Donald an’ I apparently took a nap, so we’re rested.”

“Yeah I’m sure. I’m not tired anyway.” Sora said, and went back to his perch atop of the root by the trunk.

Decision made, Donald and Goofy made their way closer to Eugene and Rapunzel and claimed their own sleeping spots.

Once he heard the breaths even out and the snores begin, the tension Sora had built up in his body released itself as he let out a long sigh. He looked to his hands once more, unsure if he did see what he actually saw.

‘Roxas, I need to talk to you.’ Sora thought out, hoping to reach his Nobody now that some time had passed. Instead of the usual feeling of Roxas stepping up from the depths of Sora’s heart, Sora saw him materialize in front of him - transparent and ghostly.

“Sora, this is gonna be the last time you can call me.” Roxas began before Sora could even question anything.

“I’m gonna be quick - Braig was right I’m not the only one in there. There’s someone else, sleeping, but that heart is full of light so that’s not the issue.”

“Then, what’s the matter Roxas?” Sora asked, keeping his volume quiet so that no one would wake.

“The sleeping heart had a stowaway. And that stowaway’s waking up.” Roxas answered, just as he began fizzling out.

“Sora, I gotta go. That stowaway is bad news - but don’t worry! I’m takin’ care of your heart from the inside alright? And I'v got some help too. Just worry about your mission! You’re trying to help me so the least I can do is help you right back.” Roxas’ last words before he disappeared entirely seemed to echo around the forest, although Sora was not relieved.

“Didn’t even get to ask ya about that weird animal.” Sora said aloud, smiling sadly, more to himself than anything. “Gonna miss talkin’ to ya though.”

Sora pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, and took a deep breath.

“I can’t give up. Roxas is doing his best, so that just means I gotta do MY best!” Sora said as he smiled, still hugging his knees. He looked up towards the night sky at all the twinkling stars, shining brightly above and relaxed his pose. “This is for all of you out there.”

Sora closed his eyes and held out his right arm in front of himself. He summoned his keyblade, feeling its warmth and light upon his hand, and his smile grew as the possibly sentient blade’s weight felt reassuring in his grip.

But something felt off. Within that warmth and light was a quick, yet weak, flare of something cold and dark and utterly utterly wrong. Sora opened his eyes and saw Star Chaser in his hand, feeling and weighing as normal as ever. He dismissed the blade and that’s when he caught it.

Inside the flash of light that comes with each summon and dismissal of a keyblade, he saw it.

Small, weak, barely there.

But still present.

Still somewhere it shouldn’t be.

Still something that shouldn’t be.

Deep inside that flash, Sora saw just a speck of cold, purple darkness.

Sora gulped, unsure of the meaning of that. He figured he’d bring it up to Yen Sid when he had a chance. He slid off his perch silently and went to wake up Goofy, the usual second in line for night watches.

Sora quietly woke the dog up and took a spot to sleep. Despite his claim that he wasn’t tired, he had had a long day, and fell asleep nearly the instant that he laid his head on his makeshift leaf pillow.

* * *

“AAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!”

The yell resounded around the camp, waking up all the campers with a startle - Rapunzel jumped awake as Sora, Donald and Goofy all summoned their weapons. Rapunzel looked towards the direction of the yell and immediately got up and ran. Sora, Donald and Goofy saw where she ran to, and immediately dismissed their weapons, getting up and running towards her in the process.

The white horse from the pub, Maximus, was dragging Eugene away from the camp by his foot, and he was digging into the ground to try to create some resistance. Eugene begged and pleaded with Maximus to release him just as Rapunzel grabbed his arm.

The tug of war between Rapunzel and Maximus over Eugene was evenly matched, and as soon as Sora, Donald and Goofy caught up they grabbed onto Rapunzel to help free Eugene.

And almost as quickly as they pulled together, Eugene came flying out of Maximus’ grasp, landing behind his companions. Eugene’s boot on the other hand stayed firmly in Maximus’ mouth.

Maximus then tried to run past the group to get to Eugene once more, only to be blocked by Rapunzel.

Sora, Donald and Goofy stood in front of Eugene creating a blockade just behind Rapunzel as she continued to bob and weave and block Maximus from coming any closer, all while she kept repeating “Easy, easy boy!” to the horse in an effort to calm him down.

It only took a few minutes but eventually Maximus gave up on getting closer to Eugene and kept still.

“That’s it.” Rapunzel said gently, following up with a gentle “Now sit.”

Maximus stared at Rapunzel as she more forcefully said “Sit!”

To which Maximus begrudgingly sat down on his haunches, boot still in mouth.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Eugene all looked at one another, mouths open in varying levels of shock as they just shook their heads and shrugged because of the scene playing out in front of them.

“So… this is happening.” said Sora to Eugene, “He didn’t like you right?”

Eugene nodded quietly from his position on the ground. Sora offered him a hand and helped him up. The scene in front of them kept unfolding until Rapunzel turned around and gave Eugene his boot back, one hand still petting Maximus’ head.

Eugene grabbed the boot and Rapunzel turned around, continuing to shower Maximus in affection.

“You’re such a good boy, aren’t you?” Rapunzel said in an affected voice. Sora, Donald and Goofy slowly made their way towards Maximus, hands halfway up to show they meant no harm as Eugene stood his ground, sputtering in exasperation.

“You’re all tired from chasing the bad man all over the place?” she asked Maximus, continuing to pet his mane. Sora, Donald and Goofy began chuckling, attempting to hold in their laughter as Eugene let out an annoyed “Excuse me?”

Rapunzel ignored Eugene, still giving Maximus all her attention. “Nobody appreciates you, do they?” she asked. By now, Maximus was completely enthralled by Rapunzel’s soothing voice and her relaxing pets and rubs, even so much as not making a peep once Sora joined Rapunzel in the mane petting.

“He is a bad horse!” Eugene called, still feet away from the petting spree.

“He’s just a big softy.’” Sora said, continuing to pet him as Rapunzel stopped and took a step back.

“A real sweetheart.” Rapunzel said, and looked to Maximus in earnest. “Look, Maximus, today’s kind of the biggest day of my life, and the thing is, I kind of need you to not get him arrested.” She grabbed Eugene and gently pushed him in front of her.

Maximus shook his head, causing Sora to stop petting him, and grunted in defiance.

“Just for twenty-four hours and then you’ll be free to chase each other to your heart’s content!” Rapunzel pleaded once more, as Eugene rolled his eyes and held his hand out for a handshake.

“Y’know,” Sora said, moving from his spot next to Maximus to stand next to Rapunzel, “it _is_ her birthday today. Think of it as a birthday gift?” He crossed his arms and pointed towards Rapunzel with his head.

Maximus begrudgingly lifted a hoof towards Eugene’s hand, and they both had a gentleman’s shake.

And bells could be heard not too far away, long and old and tolling, loud enough to be heard from their location in the forest.

“C’mon Rapunzel, your dream awaits!” Sora said, as he and Rapunzel, followed by Donald and Goofy, ran towards the source of the sound.

* * *

 

The group came upon a fairly bumpy cobblestone street leading to an awe-inspiring stone entryway. They were finally here - Corona was within sight.

Eugene stood for a second, keeping an eye out for any guards that may be patrolling the area, hiding behind Maximus whenever he deemed necessary. Sora, Donald and Goofy paused to take in the sights of the main entryway into the kingdom as Rapunzel explored the area. The entry to the kingdom was full of people, and the shops within the town were extravagantly decorated, with purple flags adorned with golden suns hanging from every clothesline, street lamp, and roof edge.

Sora nudged Eugene as he noticed the crowd tripping and stumbling over Rapunzel’s untamed hair. The two quickly corralled Maximus, Donald and Goofy’s help to gather Rapunzel’s hair amongst the four of them, all wrapped up in their arms (and some carried in Maximus’s mouth) as Rapunzel looked to them and shrugged helplessly.

Eugene caught sight of four young girls sitting on a fountain, braiding each others hair in a train, and whistled to get their attention. As soon as the children turned their heads to look at the group, they gasped in excitement, eagerly running and taking the pounds of hair from Sora, Donald, Goofy and Eugene.

As Rapunzel sat patiently on the ground letting the children braid her hair, Sora, Donald and Goofy explored around the plaza surrounding the fountain while Eugene went off to a seller to pick up some food, Maximus following him closely. The trio came upon a mural of what appeared to be the royal family - the king, the queen, and a young baby princess, big-eyed and blonde.

“Excuse me misters…” came a young voice from behind Sora. He turned and saw a child carrying a flower, trying to make her way towards the mural the trio were accidentally blocking.

“Sorry, there ya go!” Sora said as he moved from the child’s path.

She laid the flower at the floor of the mural, and turned back around. She looked at Sora, and said “You look weird. You’re from somewhere different right?”

Sora simply nodded and the child continued, pointing at the flower she laid, “That’s for the lost princess.” With that the child walked away from the mural, and back to join the festivities.

The trio looked back to the mural in silence, taking in the appearance of the young princess depicted in it.

“So what’s happenin’ here Spikey?” came Eugene’s voice from behind the trio, a low neigh following the question. Without turning, Sora responded “Apparently this is a mural of the royal family.”

From his periphery, he caught sight of Rapunzel, hair finally braided and under control, slowly walking towards the mural, as if captivated by the painting.

“Blondie!” called Eugene, pulling Rapunzel out of her trance, “Want an apple?”

Rapunzel turned away from the mural as Eugene held the apple in front of himself for her to take. She grabbed it and took a bite, looking towards another area of the town square, full of children kneeling and painting the cobblestone streets. She immediately perked up and ran towards the center of the commotion.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Eugene and Maximus followed her, catching sight of the street art and avoiding stepping on any. They caught up to Rapunzel, who was already on the ground, handfuls of purple chalk lying around her, as she began to outline a sun with wavy rays spilling forth from it - the very same sun seen on all the violet flags decorating the town.

Sora went towards the chalk distributor and grabbed a handful for himself, kneeled down, and began to draw along the cobblestone as well.

Donald and Goofy stood off to the side with Maximus, and Eugene stood nearby both Sora and Rapunzel to grab them in case if trouble arrived.

To their relief though, the only thing that came was a larger crowd, gathering along Rapunzel’s ever growing and ornate road mural - a perfect, oversized replica of the design across every decorative flag.

Sora’s artwork was mostly left alone, as it was nowhere near as grandiose or as intricate as Rapunzel’s, but as he stood up, wiping sweat from his brow, he smiled softly upon his finished product.

Before him were extremely simple approximations of himself, Riku, and Kairi. All three figures were holding hands and above them was a more intricate pattern - half of it was a paopu fruit and the other half was the good luck charm Kairi made. It was simple enough, but it just seeing it made him feel at ease. He gazed upon the drawings of Riku and Kairi fondly for a couple of moments, and finally looked up when he heard the beginnings of music.

He saw Rapunzel standing from her mural, complete at last, as she grabbed Eugene and headed towards a circular path of road where the music was coming from. Sora stayed behind with Donald, Goofy and Maximus, slowly making their way towards the music but taking a page from Eugene’s book and staying out of the dancing circle that had begun courtesy of Rapunzel.

The crowd of dancers grew larger and larger as the music continued to swell and gain energy, and Eugene got pulled into the midst of dancing from his rather close view on the sidelines. Maximus, as a horse, was not expected to join and Sora, Donald and Goofy were far enough to not have been caught in the crossfire of dancers, opting to just tap their feet and clap along with the music.

The performers and dancers continued in harmony, the energy of the dancers raising as soon as the energy of the music did, the wind and string instruments being played faster and more lively and the music swelling and crescendoing until a point until

A nearby shriek interrupted the festivities, as everyone immediately stopped, searching the area for the cause of the shriek. Before long, Sora, Donald and Goofy caught sight of a group of people running away from further inside the kingdom, screaming and warning others of monsters in the area.

“Maximus, take Rapunzel to safety!” Sora yelled, summoning the keyblade.

“Eugene, you’re a-comin with us!” Donald called, staff already in hand.

Eugene helped Rapunzel mount Maximus, and she gave him her frying pan for him to defend himself.

“Bring this back.” was all she said before she gently nudged Maximus, signalling him to take off to safety.

Eugene caught up to Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and the four of them ran towards the source of the commotion.

In the center of this plaza, was a giant dandelion-like Heartless, taller than the surrounding buildings - with many large yellow petals and sharp notched leaves coming from the stem. As soon as the four made it into the plaza, a magical barrier surrounded the entryways, preventing the group from escaping. The petals disconnected themselves from the main body heartless, now just a stem and a revealing themselves to be even more heartless that were hanging from the head of the lead heartless.

The four prepared their battle stances, bracing themselves for an attack.

“Eugene, Donald, Goofy,” Sora began, sizing up the heartless and mentally forming a plan of attack, “you three take the petals, I’ll focus on the main body. You all join me when the small fry are taken care of, got it?”

“Whatever you say Spikey!”

“Okey-dokey, Sora!”

“You got it!”

At once, the keybearer and his comrades went after their assigned enemies. Eugene stuck close to Donald to help protect the mage as he cast off Fira after Fira, Goofy immediately spun into his Tornado move, and Sora let his newest keyblade loose into the stem heartless. As Sora struck he felt as if a piece of knowledge came from his keyblade, providing the name of said heartless - an _Irate Creeper_. He backed off after a few hits to let off a couple of Firas which toppled down the until now stationary stem, allowing him to get in a few more hits before it rose up again.

This time, the Irate Creeper retaliated against Sora’s strikes, clawing at Sora with its saw-like leaves and grabbing giant globs of what appeared to be darkness infused dirt to throw at him. He skillfully dodged as many of the hits as he could, but still got hit by a rogue dirt glob despite his best efforts. Sora doge rolled away off to the side to potion up while he quickly surveyed how the others were doing.

Donald was knocked out, despite Eugene’s best attempts, and he and Goofy were back to back, Donald between them, attempting to protect the duck’s body until he came to once more. Eugene proved to be quite the swordsman...er...pansman with Rapunzel’s frying pan, knocking back the petal heartless - _Petalings_ as the keyblade quietly supplied - with practiced speed and force.

Goofy kept to his area of effect attacks, attempting to whittle down the numbers as quickly as possible - and he had been succeeding, with only a fraction of Petalings left compared to the start of battle. He expertly threw his shield like a boomerang and it knocked out another three Petalings as it returned to him. Eugene saw the downed creatures and gave them one last hit with the frying pan, causing them to disappear in puffs of darkness.

Sora saw the situation and threw out a potion to awaken Donald, before dodge rolling into the fray with the other three.

“Donald, I need you to cast Firas with me at the main body. Goofy, Eugene, keep on distracting the petals and join us when they’re gone.” Sora commanded.

The other three nodded in understanding, and Donald followed Sora out of the fray to focus on weakening the Irate Creeper. The two of them shot off Fira after Fira in unison, with Sora taking up the mantle of support when necessary. The clawed leaves came at them in between each respite between Firas, and the two swapped between guarding and dodging to ensure their safety.

The Irate Creeper then let out a guttural roar, calling back the remaining handful of Petalings onto its head, reforming into a more complete, though missing many petals, dandelion. Goofy and Eugene regrouped with Sora and Donald and the four of them rushed to attack to weaken the main body. With a wave of a razor sharp leaf, the Irate Creeper created a gust that blew Sora, Donald, Goofy and Eugene back against one side of the magical barrier, as it called a wave of darkness to wash over it. As the wave went over its head, the Petalings transformed form thin and vibrant yellow petals into white puffy seeds, and they came off of the Irate Creeper’s head, floating gently in the wind above the four heroes.

Donald immediately went to throwing out Firas and Thunders towards the floating Petalings, with Goofy throwing his shield in between each cast of magic. Sora and Eugene took this as their sign to focus their barrage of attacks on the Irate Creeper itself, with Sora switching between sending Firas at the Creeper directly and heating up Eugene’s pan so that his attacks can deal more damage.

Lunging leaves, swinging pans, flying shields and sparkling magic fought for the advantage, but ultimately the advantage went to Sora, Donald, Goofy and Eugene. Donald’s Fira hit the last of the Petalings and he and Goofy joined with Sora and Eugene, who were tired, but not nearly as much as the slumped over Irate Creeper in front of them. The four ran in to deal out melee attacks with their respective weapons, until with a swing of Sora’s keyblade, the Irate Creeper exploded into a puff of darkness, and the barrier around their arena disappeared.

The four ran out of the arena towards the center of town, where they found Rapunzel and Maximus helping the populace calm down and keep from panicking.

As soon as Rapunzel caught sight of the group, she waved them down to catch their attention, and they made their way towards her location near the fountain from earlier. She hugged Eugene as soon as he was within walking distance from her, and held tightly for a couple of moments as Eugene returned the affection.

“I was so worried about you - all of you!” she said, looking towards Sora, Donald, and Goofy at the end of her sentence.

“We appreciate that Rapunzel,” Sora began, “but we’re used to this!”

Sora, Donald and Goofy continued to regale their battle to Rapunzel, allowing Eugene to take this opportunity to slip away. The crowd around them began to clear out as the sun began to set, signalling the next part of the festival. As the trio completed their tale, Eugene slipped back into the conversation. Maximus was the only one who noticed Eugene’s disappearance, and Eugene put a finger to his lips - a signal to keep silent - and Maximus cautiously acquiesced.

“Rapunzel, I need you to come with me - I sweet talked a guy over there and he’s lending us somethin’ real nice for the lanterns tonight.” Eugene began, and looked over to Sora, Donald and Goofy before continuing, “Sorry guys, but the surprise only seats two people - d’ya mind hangin’ with Max ‘til we’re done?”

“No problem!” Sora answered, placing a hand on the horse and petting his mane. “I’m sure what you’ve got planned will be wonderful.” He looked to Rapunzel and continued, “Rapunzel, I hope your dream is everything you dreamt it would be.”

“And with that, we must be off!” Eugene said, grabbing Rapunzel’s hand and hastily walking towards the docks, “We’ll see you after the lanterns!” he called back as the two disappeared from view.

“So, what now?” Sora asked his companions.


	8. Brighter Things

* * *

After the sun finally set and the sky grew ever darker, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Maximus found a merchant who taught them not only how to make the lanterns, but also showed them one of the best perches to view the ceremony.

“And only after the King and Queen set off their lantern can the rest of the kingdom join in. Got it?” the merchant asked, making sure her newest patrons understood the kingdom’s ceremony.

“Got it ma’am!” Sora, Donald and Goofy chorused, each saluting with one hand while holding a lantern in the other.

“Alright, now get on - get! It’s nearin’ midnight so the Royal Lantern should be goin’ up any minute now!” she shooed them away and turned towards the castle, eagerly awaiting to release her own lantern to the skies.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Maximus headed away from the merchant towards a rather crowded hillside near the edge of the kingdom. It was rather far from the castle, but it also held the best view of the lanterns floating over the lake, or so the merchant told them.

Upon settling into a small clear area just large enough for the four of them, something caught Goofy’s eyes on the lake.

“Gawrsh, it that Eugene and Rapunzel?” Goofy asked Sora and Donald, pointing towards the dimly lit boat gently floating upon the lake.

“Might be, can’t tell from here though.” Sora responded, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the boat. He’s only somewhat sure that it’s them but before he can speak his mind to the group, his thoughts were interrupted by a child’s voice nearby.

“Look! The first light!” the voice said, bright and full of excitement.

Sora looked up from the lake and saw a small, yet powerful light float away from the castle. Shortly after, he noticed some other lights following the first one, and looked around the hillside. Families were all beginning to release their lanterns, and Sora, Donald and Goofy took that as their cue to release their as well. The lanterns floating from the hillside met up with those floating from the castle and created a spectacle of light - the entire lake was lit in a calm orange glow, made even more ethereal by the reflection of the lanterns’ lights on the water’s surface. The combination of floating lanterns in the sky and their lights reflected on the water made for a surreal view, like a living painting right in front of the hillside.

The lanterns continued to float along their way, dipping towards the lake and then regaining height, floating into the sky gently, softly, all the lanterns acting almost like a tail of a comet with the very first lantern acting as a head. Sora let out a small smile, and sighed wistfully, ‘I wish Kairi and Riku were here,’ he thought, the lights of the lanterns reminding him of the lights of his life.

Sora was jolted out of his thoughts when Donald whacked the back of his head.

“Get up, Sora, everyone’s leavin’!” Donald said, voice dripping with impatience.

Sora looked around to see that indeed, the previously crowded hillside was now being vacated, and he looked behind himself to see that Maximus and Goofy were waiting on him a ways away. He stood up and took one last look at the lake, noticing that the boat that was there was now out of sight. He looked around the lake, a fog creeping in, and saw moonlight reflecting off of golden hair on a shore away from the kingdom’s main docks.

“Guys, I think Rapunzel’s alone over there,” Sora said, pointing to who he thought might be Rapunzel, “Let’s make sure she’s okay.” He then took off, running towards the shore.

Goofy and Donald looked at one another before following Sora, Maximus on the other hand, ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could.

* * *

“No! Please, no! No!” came from ahead of the trio, who quickened their pace to catch up. Sora bolted through a rather thick bush to see Rapunzel running away from the burly thug brothers from the dam.

Sora summoned his keyblade and ran out in between Rapunzel, whose hair had just gotten tangled in a branch sticking from a log, and the brothers.

“If you want her you gotta get through me!” Sora shouted at the brothers, as Donald and Goofy joined in his defensive blockade.

“And us too!” Goofy added, summoning his shield as Donald summoned his staff.

The brothers unsheathed their swords as two rather large rocks came from behind them, hitting them square in the head and knocking them out. Sora immediately dismissed his keyblade and went to help untangle Rapunzel as Donald and Goofy kept watch to see who took down the brothers.

“Rapunzel!” came from the woman in red with dark curly hair - the very one Sora, Donald and Goofy had seen upon their first couple minutes on this world.

“Mother?” Rapunzel answered, now free from the log and standing next to Sora. Sora, Donald and Goofy stood warily, unsure of just how much they could trust Rapunzel’s mother. Donald and Goofy slowly dismissed their weapons to show no ill intent.

“Oh my precious girl, are you alright? Are you hurt?” She said as she came hastily towards Rapunzel, placing her hands on Rapunzel’s face and kissing Rapunzel’s hair.

“Mother, how did you-” Rapunzel asked, but was cut off before she could finish her question.

“I was so worried about you dear. So I followed you. And I saw them attack you and–oh my, that’s right!” She got up and faced Sora, Donald and Goofy.

“Thank you for protecting Rapunzel, my little flower.” she said with a dramatic flair, “I must take her back home, before those ruffians come to.” she then turned back to Rapunzel, “Come now, dear.”

Rapunzel looked towards the large ship in the distance, and sighed sadly.

“Wait, what about Eugene?” Sora asked, finally noticing that said man was missing.

Rapunzel began sobbing into her mother’s arms, choking words in between each breath, “Mother was right about him.”

“I know darling, I know.” Gothel said to Rapunzel, and then turned to Sora, Donald and Goofy, “Thank you for helping her so far, but I must take her home. She’s been through enough and needs some time with her mother to heal from this disaster of a day. I hope you understand.”

“...Of course.” Sora said, slowly nodding, “Would you like us to check up on Rapun-”

“NO!” Gothel yelled at Sora, before clearing her throat, “I’m sorry, I’m a tad overprotective of my little flower. But I can’t allow that - her gift must be protected. We’ll be off then. Ciao!”

With that Gothel hurried off with Rapunzel, still softly crying in her arms and hair glistening in the now rising sun.

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked towards one another, each of them feeling suspicious of Rapunzel’s mother.

“Donald, Goofy, let’s check around the kingdom for Eugene. I’m sure that she did something to him.” Sora said, taking off towards the kingdom.

Donald and Goofy followed immediately behind, keeping pace with Sora. Goofy took a look at their surroundings, noticing something was off.

“Uh, fellas? Where’s Maximus?” Goofy questioned, still running behind Sora and Donald.

“Crud, we lost him!” Sora said, finally noticing that the horse was indeed gone.

The three slowed their pace as they made it back into the kingdom, which was currently in a frenzy.

“I wonder what’s happenin’.” Donald said, seeing the guards in extremely high spirits.

“Oh well, one of the most notorious thieves was caught last night!” said a nearby guard who overheard Donald’s question, “He stole the lost princess’ crown and it was returned on her birthday! Take that Flynn Rider!”

“Flynn Rider?!” chorused Sora, Donald and Goofy.

“Yeah! He’s gonna get what’s comin’ to him - the death penalty!” the guard said happily, “But I gotta go prepare for that so I’ll see you all later!”

With that the guard ran off, leaving Sora, Donald, and Goofy paling at the development.

“He’s gotta be innocent - he had to have been framed.” Sora said, and Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

“He mighta been a thief but he wasn’t a bad guy.” Goofy said, looking around at the happy townsfolk in the kingdom.

“We gots ta find Maximus!” Donald said, “Maybe he can help us.”

“He’s our only hope right now, so let’s do our best to find him!” Sora said, pumping his fist into the air.

The three began making their way towards the kingdom entrance when Sora ran into a rather heavy set man, and was knocked back onto the floor.

“Sorry! I’m kinda in a hurry and wasn’t really payin’ attention-” Sora began, rubbing his head and oblivious to the person in front of him.

“It’s alright Spikey,” came a familiar gruff voice.

Sora looked up to see a hook extended towards his face.

“Here, lemme help ya up.” said Hook, the hook-handed pianist from the Sunggly Duckling. He waited for Sora to grasp the hook before realizing his mistake and instead offered his hand, which Sora took, and helped the boy up.

“The horse came by an’ seemed flustered, an’ we thought the girl might be in trouble from the sound of it.” Hook began, moving aside to gesture towards the rest of the Snuggly Duckling Crew, with Maximus in the middle of them all, behind him.

“Maximus you wonderful horse!” Sora yelled, and ran towards him to pet his mane.

Maximus whinnied from the contact, shaking his head and closing his eyes to show his content.

“Okay, so here's the deal.” Sora began, calling the thugs to explain the situation to them, “Rapunzel’s been taken by her mom, who we think isn’t all that good, and we think that Euge-- Flynn, was framed by her.”

“Framed for what, exactly?” Big, the big nosed thug, asked, “The man is a thief, an’ he ain’t exactly a friend o’ the crown.”

“We dunno,” Sora admitted, shaking his head, “but whatever it is, it can’t be worth the death penalty!”

The thugs all muttered among one another upon hearing that Flynn would be put to death. They may have known he was a thief, but they could see how much he meant to Rapunzel, even from their short visit to the Snuggly Duckling.

“We gotta break him out. Rapunzel needs him, and he needs Rapunzel.” Sora said once the thugs quieted down, “Anyone have any ideas on how to break him out?”

“I think,” Shorty, the rather old, short thug began, a hiccup interrupting his sentence, “I got somethin’! C’mere!”

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Maximus, and all the Snuggly Duckling Thugs came closer to Shorty, who outlined his seemingly silly, but ultimately feasible plan to save the man he knew as Flynn, and to get him back to Rapunzel.

* * *

Back at the tower, Rapunzel sat slumped forward on her bed as Gothel removed the last of the flowers from her now free hair.

“There. It never happened.” Gothel said, throwing out the flower and wiping her hands, “Now wash up for dinner - I’m making Hazelnut soup!” She got up and walked towards the open doorway, curtains draping on either side of her.

Rapunzel stayed silent, still sitting on the bed and looking down at her hands.

Gothel looked towards Rapunzel and began, in a soft voice, “I really did try, Rapunzel. I tried to warn you what was out there. The world is dark and selfish and cruel. If it finds even the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys it.” As she finished, she grabbed onto the curtains with each hand and closed the curtains, heading down towards the kitchen area and leaving Rapunzel alone.

Rapunzel then opened her hands, revealing the flag from the festival, scrunched up from its hiding place within her hands. She gently opened up the flag upon her lap, its soft purple fabric contrasting with the metallic gold sunburst adorning the middle of the flag.

She took a breath and looked down at Pascal beside her, who merely changed into a grayer hue and hugged her thigh. Rapunzel sighed and flopped backwards onto the bed, eyes closed,  laying down and placing the flag upon her chest. She opened her eyes slowly and looked towards her ceiling, full of her paintings from throughout the years.

Rapunzel stared at the ceiling, squinting as something caught her attention. She slowly lifted the flag above her and stared at the sunburst, moving the flag from her vision to look once again at the ceiling above. She placed the flag on her bed and stood to get a closer look at the ceiling and there, in the negative space of the painting there, was the sunburst from the Kingdom’s Crest.

She looked at her other creations around the room and one by one, she noticed in negative space after negative space - the very same sunburst in each of her pieces of art decorating her room. Sunburst after sunburst were noticed by her for the first time in years, and she was accosted by a long ago, far off memory.

The sunburst was at the center of it, a hanging mobile above her head, slowly spinning. The memory continued as the view shifted, and Rapunzel saw the King and Queen of Corona, staring down lovingly at her. The two suddenly shifted into the mural that Rapunzel saw at the festival, and the memory of that recent event played as she saw the young baby in the Queen’s hands.

A baby with green eyes and a healthy head of long. Golden. Hair.

Just like hers.

“He was right…” she mumbled to herself, as she snapped back to the present. She stumbled from the sudden return to reality and fell onto her dresser, crying out in pain as she hit it.

* * *

 

Inside the prison, Eugene was escorted by two guards down a long hallway surrounded by other cells, all filled with other prisoners. Eugene kept his eyes down, as the guards guided him towards his seemingly inescapable fate. He glanced around the hallway into the cell, and saw none other than the two brothers who have been after his throat the entire time - the Stabbington Brothers. Eyes squinted in determination, Eugene made a decision.

Eugene quickly launched himself into the guard on his right, knocking the guard down thanks to a good, sturdy hit to the chin with Eugene’s shoulder. Immediately in response, the second guard released Eugene, a reactionary movement caused by Eugene’s own quick surprising attack.

As the second guard realized Eugene was free, before he could even move to recapture the thief, Eugene quickly headbutted him, causing him to fall in disorientation. As the second guard fell, Eugene quickly jumped and positioned his still chained hands under himself, allowing him to jump over his hands and bring them to his front.

Eugene ran towards the cell and reached inwards, grabbing the Sideburn-sporting brother and pulling him closer, his head hitting the iron bars of his cell hard enough that the bars rattled loudly.

“How did you know about her?!” Eugene all but yelled into Sideburns’ face, “Tell me, now!”

Face stuck against the iron bars, Sideburns muttered as best he could to the deeply breathing Eugene, “It wasn’t us, it was the old lady.”

Eugene slackened his grip as he muttered to himself looking down to the floor, “Old lady…”

A moment was all that he had before the guards grabbed him again, soliciting a yell from Eugene and forcing him to let go of Sideburns. Eugene’s arms were held tighter this time, as he kept struggling, jumping and kicking the air, trying to release himself.

“Wait! No!” he yelled, attempting to shake loose the tight grip around his arms, “You don’t understand, she’s in trouble! Wait!”

His pleas and struggles were met with indifference and a tightened grip, as he was pushed further towards the exit to the holding area, still shaking, and kicking, and pleading to be heard.

* * *

 

Upon hearing a slam coming from Rapunzel’s upstairs room, Gothel headed towards the stairs leading there, and called out to Rapunzel.

“Rapunzel?” she began as she ascended the stairway, “Rapunzel, what’s going on up there?”

Her voice was stern, as she demanded to know what was going on in the privacy of Rapunzel’s room. She made it halfway up the stairway as Rapunzel slowly came out of her room - breathing slowly, head down, and grasping to the curtains as if they were the only things keeping her standing.

“Are you alright?” Gothel questioned, seeing Rapunzel’s distressed state of being.

“I’mthelostprincess..” Rapunzel muttered below her breath, as if speaking to herself more so than to Gothel.

Gothel stopped her ascent and rolled her eyes, voice taking on an annoyed tone at Rapunzel’s antics. She sighed heavily and said, voice rising in volume with each word, “Oh please, speak up Rapunzel. You know how I hate the mumbling.”

“I am the lost princess.” Rapunzel stated, loudly, clearly, as she looked at Gothel straight in the eyes, face turning into a scowl, “Aren’t I?”

Gothel’s eyes opened wide at this statement. She stared quietly at Rapunzel as she moved away from the curtains, a new confidence in her demeanor.

“Did I mumble, Mother?” Rapunzel said quietly, voice full of a seething anger, eyes glaring at Gothel, “Or should I even call you that?”

Gothel was silent for a beat before hand waving the sentiment away, literally, as she said “Oh Rapunzel, do you even hear yourself?”

She ascended the staircase closer to Rapunzel and continued, “Why would you ask such a  ridiculous question?” Gothel then punctuated her question by opening her arms, inviting Rapunzel into a hug, but she was denied.

Rapunzel pushed Gothel away as she made the move for the hug, stepping away from Gothel in the process. “It was you! It was all you!” she said, looking at Gothel like she was a stranger.

“Everything that I did was to protect you.” Gothel said, disappointment dripping from her voice as Rapunzel still stared defiantly at the woman she once called her mother.

As Gothel stood her ground, Rapunzel pushed on ahead and pushed Gothel away with a grunt, making her way behind Gothel towards the stairs.

“Rapunzel!” she exclaimed, the push from her not-quite daughter of eighteen years stunned her in place momentarily, before she followed the young woman down the short, yet winding staircase.

“I’ve spent my entire life hiding from people who would use my power…” Rapunzel began, as she descended the stairs, fists clenched and arms down at her sides.

“Rapunzel!” Gothel said more forcefully, continuing to follow Rapunzel down the stairs.

“...but I should have been hiding from…” Rapunzel trailed off as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She turned around quickly and looked up at Gothel who was halfway down the stairs, “...you!”

“Where will you go?” Gothel asked Rapunzel, “He won’t be there for you.”

“What did you do to him?” Rapunzel asked, her voice shaking lightly as she took a step back.

Gothel glared at Rapunzel before turning her head towards the window, “That criminal is to be hanged for his crimes.” she stated calmly, voice certain at the outcome she predicted.

Rapunzel brought her hands to her mouth, eyes wide, and gasped. “No…” she managed to get out, before Gothel came even closer.

“Now, now, it’s all right. Listen to me.” Gothel began, as she brought her hand up to pat at Rapunzel’s hair, “Everything is as it should be.”

Rapunzel reacted immediately, and grabbed Gothel’s hand to keep her from petting her hair, “No!” she said, defiance in her voice. “You were wrong about the world.” She pushed Gothel’s hand, still in her grasp, away as she came closer.

“And you were wrong about me.” Rapunzel pointed at Gothel, still coming closer, even quicker, as Gothel backed up towards the dresser, “And I will _never_ let you use my hair, _again!_ ”

Gothel reached the dresser with great force and speed, and a loud crash was heard throughout the tower as the mirror behind her broke from her collision. She gasped in surprise from the sound, and began panting as Rapunzel walked away quickly, a new confidence evident in her step.

As she left Gothel took a few more breaths before composing herself. She muttered under her breath, “You want me to be the bad guy? Fine.” She took a few steps forward from the dresser, “Now I’m the bad guy..” she finished, with a hint of a growl in her voice and a scowl on her face.

* * *

 

Through a brightly lit hallway, away from the cells of the dark dungeon, Eugene kept struggling and jumping and pleading to be heard. He eventually took a breath and happened to glance towards an indent in the wall - right in the middle, on the porous, faded red stone, stood a miniature, white, ceramic unicorn. Eugene brought his brows together, confusion on his face, as he looked towards the open door the guards kept forcing him towards.

Suddenly the door slammed shut on the head guard, the metallic clang echoing around the hallway, forcing the two guards handling Eugene to stop abruptly in their tracks.

Another metallic slam came from the guards’ left hand side, followed by one behind them, as those two doors slammed shut in succession. Eugene and the guards all looked towards each door as soon as they heard them shut, staring at the door behind them for a few moments, unsure of just what was happening within the prison they were in.

The lead guard then strode towards the closed door in their path and commanded, “What’s this? Open up!”

A barred window in the door opened at the guard’s eye level, revealing an older, balding man, looking as if he wasn’t quite all there.

“What’s the password?” he asked, taking the guards and Eugene by surprise, as he shut the window just after finishing his question.

“What?” was all the head guard could utter before the door. Instantly, the window slid open once more, revealing the old man, who cut in with a curt “Nope” before slamming it shut again.

“Open this door!” the guard yelled, only for the window to reopen once more as the old man said “Not even close!”

At his limit, the head guard yelled to the still closed door, “You have three seconds!”

 

“One!”

 

As the head guard was preoccupied with his countdown, the guard to Eugene’s left was yanked upwards by a hook, taking both Eugene and the guard to his right by surprise. Neither said anything, too shocked by the moment to fully process what had happened.

 

“Two!”

 

The door immediately to the right of Eugene and the remaining guard opened, and the guard, pointing at the area the previous guard had been taken, was pulled inside unceremoniously, a large hand covering his mouth so that he wouldn’t scream.

 

“Three!”

 

At this, the head guard turned around to see a lonely Eugene, who waved, as best he could with his restraints, with a smug smile on his face. The guard gasped as the door behind him opened up, and he was knocked out by a frying pan to the head. As he went down, Eugene saw Sora, holding the frying pan, looking at it with awe.

“Frying pans! Who knew, right?” Eugene said, relieved to see a familiar face.

Sora smiled and aimed the keyblade at Eugene’s wrists. A bright light shot from the keyblade to Eugene’s shackles, and Eugene heard a click as his shackles loosened and fell off. He raised his hands to see his now free wrists as he heard a loud bang coming from behind him.

Sora and Eugene looked towards the back door as another they heard another bang sound, and the two nodded at each other and began their escape as a third bang finally took down the door, with three guards rushing in behind them.

The two ran along the corridors as thugs from the tavern came behind them to help distract the guards. Sora led Eugene to a courtyard and held his hand out for him to stop. A horde of guards were coming in from a staircase on the other end of the courtyard.

Sora gently nudged a distracted Eugene towards a wheelbarrow and Sora stood closely in front of him as Hook joined them from behind.

“Alright Hook, we’re ready.” Sora called out behind him. Hook came to Eugene’s side as Sora scanned the upper level of the courtyard.

“Okay - head down.” Hook said, bringing his head down.

“Head down.” Eugene said as he and Sora mimicked the motion.

“Arms in.” Hook continued, bringing his arms in.

“Arms in.” Eugene repeated, as he and Sora once again mimicked Hook.

“Knees apart.” Hook finished, bringing his knees apart.

“Knees apar-” Eugene began but was thrown off, “Knees apart?” he asked, unaware that Sora had already brought his own knees apart. Unbeknownst to Eugene, and completely expected to Sora, Vlad had jumped from the second story balcony with every intention to land on the raised part of the wheelbarrow.

“Why would I need my knees apar- AAAAAHHHHH!” Eugene began and then went into a scream as he and Sora went airborne. Within seconds the two of them landed on a rooftop walkway atop Maximus, perfectly in the saddle, Sora in front of Eugene.

“Oh.” Eugene said flatly, as he realized that Donald and Goofy were behind him, already seated on Max.

Sora looked back to Eugene and said, “Max brought them here before we even had an idea what was happening.”

Eugene looked to Maximus and Maximus neighed eagerly in response.

“Thank you..” Eugene said, at a loss for words.

“No really, thank you. I feel maybe this whole time we’ve just been misunderstanding each other - “

“Sorry to interrupt but we gotta go!” Sora cut Eugene off, as he grabbed Max’s reigns and Max set off, destination easily apparent for all in the saddle.

Guards came from behind though, busting through the door, and even more came from the tower just around the corner. Maximus galloped even faster, and ran and ran towards the edge.

With the weight of two humans, a dog, and a duck, Maximus managed to leap over the stone railing, and land safely on the neighboring shingled roof, where he slid down from the momentum and jumped once he reached the edge, finally landing safely in the town square, still running at full speed towards Rapunzel's Tower.

* * *

As the four riders and one horse made it to the tower, the skies above kept gradually becoming more grey and more overcast until they finally stopped at the foot of the tower, the sky reaching peak darkness at that point.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Eugene all disembarked from Maximus, who sat down on the grass, tired from the long run and heavy weight.

As soon as Maximus was out of the way a horde of the Dandelion Heartless, Angry Astera, appeared in puffs of dark smoke. Donald and Goofy took to fighting them as Sora and Eugene turned back towards the tower.

“Rapunzel!” Eugene called, immediately followed by Sora’s echo.

“Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Eugene yelled out, followed by another call of “Rapunzel” from Sora.

After a moment of hairless silence, the two began to climb up the tower to the best of their abilities. They made it up a few feet before slipping, before Sora caught a glimpse of gold coming down from the tower.

“She heard us!” Sora called to Eugene, as the two use the magical hair to climb the tower.

Below them, Donald and Goofy kept to the battle, keeping the Heartless away from the two climbing the tower. The field was a mess of dandelion seeds, fire, thunder, and a flying shield going every which way.

Sora made it into the window a second before Eugene, and the two of them gasped in unison as they took in their surroundings.

In front of them at the other end of the room was Rapunzel, cloth gag over her mouth, hands chained behind her back. She tried to say something but her voice came out as nothing but muffled mumbles.

Sora ran to her and pulled the gag off of her mouth, allowing her to say “Eugene, watch out!”

Sora turned to see Eugene just barely dodge getting stabbed in the back by a rather aged looking Gothel.

“Now now, look what you’ve done, Rapunzel.” Gothel said, as Eugene and Sora prepared for a battle, “Our secret would have died swiftly with them - now I have to draw it out and clean up your mess, as usual.”

A wave of darkness came off of Gothel as a barrier separated Rapunzel from Eugene and Sora. The two of them looked wards on another and towards Gothel, radiating Darkness from her torso up, dagger at the ready in one hand, and a handful of Rapunzel’s hair in another.

Gothel quickly rattled off the Song of Healing and she instantly rejuvenated, looking much more spry and prepared for battle, and the Darkness around her strengthened from her youthful state.

“Let’s dance.” she taunted.

“Sora,” Eugene began, “We gotta get her away from the hair.” he continued, pointing to locks of hair hanging around the tower within Gothel’s reach. “We’ll hide it when I give the signal so she can’t heal.”

“Got it.” Sora responded, immediately rushing towards Gothel to attack as Eugene climbed the rafters to pull the hair out of reach.

“My my, you’re both so determined.” Gothel taunted, as Sora brought down Star Chaser from an overhead swing onto Gothel, who effortlessly parried with her Dagger. As Sora was momentarily stunned by the parry, Gothel took her chance to swing and stab her dagger at Sora, who had recovered just in time to dodge most of the hits, taking minor damage from a swipe that luckily just grazed him.

“Sora!” Eugene called from the rafters.

Eugene had grabbed the lock of hair that Gothel had in her hand and yanked it up, carrying Gothel with it as she refused to let go.

Sora took the opportunity to go all out, swinging the keyblade like a madman and letting out a few Blizzards and Firas at Gothel. After a good combo and a half, her grip on the hair weakened and she dropped to the ground, as Eugene yanked the lock out of her reach.

Sora took the opportunity to blast off another two Firas at Gothel before she stood once more and disappeared in a poof of smoke.

“Looking for me boys?” she said as she reappeared a ways behind Sora, closer to Rapunzel. Gothel grabbed another lock of hair and began to rattle off the healing song, but before she could make it halfway Eugene jumped from rafter to rafter as Sora ran towards Gothel and the two of them repeated their teamwork - Eugene pulling Gothel up, Sora blasting through with some magic and a combo, and her dropping to the ground once more.

She took a bit of a beating from Sora before disappearing again, and reappearing on the rafters with Eugene.

“The bad guy’s gotta shake it up a little bit, don’t you think?” she mocked, armed with only her dagger as she launched herself towards Eugene, armed with only his frying pan.

Sora saw the commotion above and leaped from wall to wall, rafter to rafter, to join Eugene in taking her down.

Dagger stab after frying pan swing after Blizzard blast after dagger thrust after Keyblade lunge the battle atop went on, each party taking damage from one another until finally, Gothel let out a scream of agony, her appearance older than it had been before - crow’s feet around her eyes, salt and pepper hair but still mostly black - and she disappeared once more.

The barrier protecting Rapunzel had disappeared, so Sora and Eugene jumped and climbed down the rafters, respectively, and made it down to Rapunzel to free her from her chains. Eugene quickly went towards the window to scan for any anomalies, seeing only a tiny Donald, Goofy and Maximus resting, having finished their battle as well. He then leaned on the nearby pillar and took a deep breath.

“Thank you…” Rapunzel said, her voice soft and uncertain as she looked towards the rafters, rubbing her hands gently as the shackles came off.

“I’m sorry.” Sora said, “She acted as your mom for so long, it’s only natural to be hurt…”

Sora and Eugene looked at the rafters too, the last known place that Gothel existed.

“AUGH!” Eugene’s voice suddenly pierced the air, causing Sora and Rapunzel to jolt their heads to Eugene’s position.

There, atop his writhing body, was Gothel, wiping a dagger clean as Eugene’s clothes darkened from where he was stabbed.

“NO!” Rapunzel yelled, as she lunged towards Eugene.

Sora stood shocked, unable to move as Gothel grabbed Rapunzel’s arms and held her, the young woman still struggling in the grasp of her false mother.

“Rapunzel, really. Enough already. Stop fighting me!” Gothel called as she lost grip of Rapunzel, who fell to the floor from her desperate struggle to get away from Gothel.

“No. I won’t stop. For every minute for the rest of my life I will fight! I will never stop trying to get away from you!” Rapunzel said, before taking a breath and continuing, gently, “But, if you let me save him, I will go with you.”

“No!” Sora said, reaching out to Rapunzel but still planted at his position in disbelief.

“No!” Eugene chorused, struggling to lay back against the pillar behind him, “No Rapunzel…” he managed to get out, his wound still causing him immense pain.

Gothel disappeared and reappeared behind Sora, taking him by surprise, as she chained his hands together. She immediately did the same to Eugene, chaining the downed man to the pillar his back was leaning on, leaving his hands free.

“In case you two get any ideas about following us.” she said, a smirk on her face as she looked from hero to hero.

Immediately Rapunzel hugged Eugene, and went into a tirade of apologies and reassurances that he would be okay.

“I can’t let you do this…” Eugene said weakly in response.

“But I can’t let you die!” Rapunzel said, determined to heal him. She began the Healing song but was interrupted by a weak “Rapunzel, wait.”

She paused just long enough for Eugene to raise his hands, grab her hair in one, and slice her hair with a glass mirror shard he held in the other.

Instantly, her golden hair turned brown starting at the cut, as the cut hair all over the floor and rafters of the tower quickly lost its golden, magical luster.

“NO!” Gothel screamed, grabbing as much of the still golden hair as she could, as it turned brown in her hands. Speaking of hands, she caught sight of one of her hands growing paler, and wrinklier, and bonier as the hair continued to change.

“No, no, no, no…” she repeated, as a mantra, “What have you done? What have you done?”

She caught sight of herself in the broken mirror - pale wrinkled face, hair turning first grey then white, as her arms became even more pale and bony. She quickly pulled her hood up and closed it as much as she could to hide her quickly aging face.

She kept repeating the Nos, not seeing where she was going until she tripped over a taut lock of hair on the floor, held courtesy of Pascal, and fell out of the window. Rapunzel reached her hand out as Gothel fell, and Sora ran to the window to see the empty cloak fluttering towards the ground below, dust trailing behind it as Gothel’s body seemed to have aged to it’s proper age.

Pascal jumped onto Sora’s hands and unlocked his chains with the key he found on the floor as Rapunzel cried over Eugene.

Eugene's breaths were shallow and uneven, his condition worsening as Rapunzel tried to make it right. She recited the song once more, to no avail. Her hair having been cut, it lost all its power, leaving her singing to Eugene and her hair unresponsive for the first time in her life.

“Rapunzel…” Eugene struggled to get out, taking a sharp breath after saying her name.

“What?” Rapunzel replied softly, putting her hand on Eugene’s face.

With great difficulty, Eugene mimicked the action, placing his hand on Rapunzel’s face as he continued, “...you were my new dream…”

“And you were mine…” Rapunzel said, her tears returning to her as Eugene took his last breath.

Sora looked at the scene before him silently, unsure of what to say or do. This was far beyond what a Cure-type spell could fix. He looked at his hands, taking long slow breaths, before gripping them tightly into fists and letting out a huff of air. He put his hands back down to his side as his brows furrowed, and a tear came to his eye as he heard singing. He looked up to see Rapunzel trying the song one last time, taking breaths between each line to allow her tears to flow.

It all seemed useless. He did nothing to stop Gothel when she stabbed Eugene. His fists shook ever so slightly as he felt a tightness in his chest. He thought nothing about it, though. After all, who wouldn’t feel a tight chest in this situation?

But everything cleared when one of Rapunzel’s tears fell onto Eugene, and a vision of a golden flower blooming grew from Eugene’s wound. The sweet golden light filled the room, as Eugene’s wound began to close itself back up.

“Rapunzel… you did it!” Sora cheered, as his negative emotions from earlier just whisked away as if they never existed.

“Rapunzel,” Eugene said softly, wiping a tear from Rapunzel’s cheek.

“Eugene…” She responded, still crying, but smiling through her tears.

“Did I ever tell you I’ve got a thing for brunettes?” Eugene finished, as Rapunzel lunged for a deep embrace with the man she loved.

Sora looked away, opting to give the two their privacy, and glanced out the window of the tower. He saw the skies clearing up from the impending storm, likely caused by the attraction to Gothel’s darkness, and looked down below to see Donald and Goofy tending to Maximus, who was drinking the fresh water from the nearby pond.

Unbeknownst to him though, just off to the side of the tower away from Sora’s field of view, another creature with the same red eyes as before flew around the tower. It looked very much like a yellow pot with a lid, with angry looking red eyes and tiny yellow wings at the bottom of its body, slightly above two stubby brown legs. The brown came up to its face, giving the creature and almost angry looking smile.

It flew around the back of the tower and back, just out of Sora’s field of vision, before using its wings to attack the stone a little bit. It did minimal damage though, and seemed to huff as it disappeared in a puff of dark smoke.

“Sora,” Rapunzel called, pulling Sora out of his head as he turned around to look at Rapunzel and the now standing Eugene, “You ready to head down?”

* * *

 

A blue-haired woman gave a sigh as she changed her position from sitting to lying down on the cold, damp, grey sand that surrounded her and her companion. The cloaked and hooded man next to her sat upon a rock, safe from the annoying substance getting into any crevices in his clothing, but she turned her thoughts away from feeling envious of him - after all he was on that rock before she came along to this dark beach. She’s just the new one who is now playing the waiting game.

She stared at the dark, starless sky before she felt something stir in her heart.

“He found it.” She said quietly, mostly to herself as she got back up to a sitting position.

“Hm?” the man next to her questioned, “What is it, Aqua?” he asked with words this time.

Aqua turned to look at the man in the eye, as best as she could since his were hidden, and stood up triumphantly.

“The keyblade I sent out as a rescue note.” Aqua began, turning to look at the horizon where black water met a black sky, “Sora found it somehow.”

The darkness affecting her heart pulled back a little, as this information gave her the surge of hope she needed. She turned back to her companion, still sitting rather motionless on the rock.

“We’re getting out of here.” Aqua said softly. She pulled out her wayfinder, a brilliant star made of blue glass and silver medal. “We’re gonna go home.”

Aqua turned back to the sea as the man behind her spoke.

“You will be going home. I am afraid I have become too far lost to ever recall who I once was, or who I will be. I do not believe even Sora can save me.” The cloaked man's posture fell into more of a slump, his head looking down as if to emphasize his hopelessness.

“You’re wrong.” Aqua retaliated, “You remember his name for a reason, even in this horrible realm. That means he _can_ help you.” She said as she walked towards the man and grabbed his gloved hands within her own.

“Just like I’m going to see Terra and Ven again, you’re going to see Sora again.” She knelt down and looked into his hood, finally seeing a glimmer of light within the dark red-orange eyes hidden by shadow, “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. As of now this is no longer the longest chapter - Chapter nine will be haha. but hope you had fun reading so far!


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